Why people watch rape porn?

Description

The recent arrest of a driver in Bengaluru for circulating videos of rapes and gang-rapes uncovered the dark world in which acts of brutal violence against women are turned into someone else’s entertainment.

Kaushik Kuanr, 26, was arrested by the CBI last week, reportedly with more than 450 such videos in his possession. He was the third person to be nabbed after Hyderabad-based anti-trafficking activist Sunitha Krishnan started an online campaign, #shametherapist, in February to bring to book five men seen in a WhatsApp video raping a woman.

So why do a large number of people watch and share videos such as those circulated by Kuanr?

Experts and activists say certain strains in human psychology and the easy access to the internet – and often to extreme pornographic content – can contribute towards such behaviour.

Some experts and reports also say the existence of the “deep web” – the portion of the internet that cannot be indexed by common search engines –helps in consuming gore and violent content online.