The Mechanism of Moral Disengagement on Adolescent Perpetrators

of Fornication

Dessi Christanti

1,2

, Suryanto

, and Muhammad Ghazali Bagus Ani Putra

Psychology Faculty,

Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya Indonesia

Psychology Faculty, Airlangga University Surabaya Indonesia

Keywords: Adolescent of fornication perpetrator, moral disengagement, instrumental case study

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to describe the mechanism of moral disengagement on adult perpetrators of

fornication. This research is motivated by many cases of fornication by adolescents. Adolescents know that

fornication is wrong but they do it anyway. It is interesting to know what is going on in their cognition. This

case can be viewed from moral disengagement theory. The problem statement of this research is ”How are

the mechanism of moral disengagement on adult perpetrators of fornication?” This study used an

instrumental case study. This study was conducted in juvenile prison in Blitar East Java Indonesia. The

study participants were adults aged between fourteen to eighteen years old, male and had been found guilty

by the court. This study engaged five people. It employed in-depth interview. Data analysis was done by

categorization and direct interpretation, correspondence and pattern, and naturalistic generalization. The

results of this study showed that the forms of mechanism of moral disengagement possessed by adult

perpetrators of fornication are moral justification, blame attribution, diffusion of responsibility,

dehumanization, and distortion or minimizing the consequences. Of the five mechanism of moral

disengagement, the ones widely used are diffusion of responsibility, attribution of blame, distortion of

consequences and dehumanization.

1 INTRODUCTION

Sexual crimes against women still occur today. The

culprit is not only men but also teenage boys.

Sometimes male teens insult or degrade sexually,

and force their girlfriends to have sexual intercourse

(Bonomi et al., 2012).

In Indonesia fornication is a term contained in

child protection legislation number 35 of 2014 and

criminal law that is also associated with ethical

violations, such as sexual harassment, rape and

sexual violence (Chazawi, 2005). This is associated

with the idea of sexual harassment which is an

unwanted sexual act. Sexual harassment has three

forms: the first form is gender harassment, ie all

forms of comments that are sexually abusive,

degrading or sexual harassment. The second form is

unwanted sexual behavior concerns, including

physical and verbal sexual assault, and rape. The last

form is sexual coercion, i.e. solicitation or coercion

of sexual activity by promising something, reward,

threat or punishment (Stockdale, 1996). The

fornication in this study is similar to the form of

unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion.

Fornication is a behavior associated with moral

contradictions. Behavior can be said to be related to

morals if the behavior can help or harm others

(O'Learry-Kelly & Bowes-Sperry; 2001).

Fornication is clearly a behavior that can have a

negative impact on others. For example, the victim

feels himself unattractive, feels worthless, and has a

negative perception of his relationship with his

girlfriend because he feels dependent on his

girlfriend (Collibee and Furman, 2014). Because As

fornication is a violation of child protection

legislation, juvenile offenders may be jailed and

after finishing his sentence, adolescents may

experience negative labeling. (Schultz, 2014). As a

result of labeling, teenagers can feel themselves as

bad people and have negative self-concept and low

self-esteem (Feldman, 2000).

Why do teenagers commit fornication? One

reason is direct experience of sexual violence

(McCuish, Lussier and Corrado, 2015) and seeing

pornography both directly and indirectly (Bleakley

et al., 2011) can encourage adolescents to fornicate.

494

Christanti, D., Suryanto, . and Putra, M.

The Mechanism of Moral Disengagement on Adolescent Perpetrators of Fornication.

DOI: 10.5220/0008591304940504

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Psychology in Health, Educational, Social, and Organizational Settings (ICP-HESOS 2018) - Improving Mental Health and Harmony in

Global Community, pages 494-504

ISBN: 978-989-758-435-0

This is brought about by an imitation process of

what is experienced and what is seen. (Bandura,

Barbaranelli and Caprara, 1996). Research on family

harmony (Knox, 2014) also suggests that the

criminal act of obscenity correlates with family

harmony. Families have an important role in

protecting children from unlawful acts. Family

disharmony can lead to a lack of parental

supervision so that the child can feel free to commit

obscenity (Barbaree & Langton, 2006). The

characteristics of a victim (Felson and Cundiff,

2014) can also be used as a reason for the

perpetrators to commit a criminal offense for

obtaining a stimulus from the victim. Another cause

of adultery is consuming alcohol (Hunter et al.,

2003)

The results of some of these studies suggest that

fornication factors by adolescents are caused by

external factors. However, some previous studies

have also shown that there is a cognitive process in

indecent behavior (Sigre-Leirós, Carvalho and

Nobre, 2015). adolescents who fornicate develop the

wrong mindset about sexuality. They get

misinformation about sexuality from the

environment or from exposure to pornography

without authority figures that balance

misinformation (Gerhard-Burnham et al., 2016) .

Cognitive-related research results rarely reveal

what adult perpetrators of fornication believe. They

know that fornication is against moral but they still

do it. Certainly there are cognitive and belief

processes that remove feelings of guilt for sexual

immorality. Future research should be able to reveal

the mechanisms of cognitive distortion that

encourages teenagers to fornicate (Burn and Brown,

2006). The moral theory of disengagement can be

used to answer it.

Individuals recognize morale through interaction

with their environment and through education in

schools. The moral values that individuals have

derived become the individual moral standards that

serve as a behavioral guideline (Bandura, 2002).

However, in reality there are some individuals who

violate morals or rules, including adult perpetrators

of fornication . In such situations, individuals can

rationalize in their cognitive structure so they can

commit obscenity without feeling guilty. The

process of rearranging this cognitive structure is

called moral disengagement (Bandura, Barbaranelli

and Caprara, 1996).

Moral disengagement has been used extensively

to examine why individuals commit moral offenses.

Several previous studies have shown that moral

disengagement can be used in the field of

organization or industry (Claybourn, 2011);

corruption behavior (Moore, 2008); fraudulent

behavior in sports (Boardley and Kavussanu, 2007);

terrorism (Bandura, 2004) and war (Cartledge,

Bowman-Grieve and Palasinski, 2015). Moral

disengagement has also been used in studies relating

to children in conflict with the law (Caroli and

Sagone, 2014)

Based on previous research it can be concluded

that moral disengagement has a role in the

emergence of behavior that violates morals.

Therefore with regard to fornication behavior

committed by adolescents, the mechanism of moral

disengagement can also be used to analyze it. Prior

research on the moral disengagement has also been

done by Caroll (2009) at a male college or high

school. But the results of the study only show that

individuals with high moral disengagament tend to

be more positive about rape. Yet, those studies have

not revealed the underlying beliefs of obscenity by

teenagers.

It is concluded that moral disengagement offers a

promising framework to understand the cognitive

process that facilitates and maintains sexually

harassing behavior such as inappropriate sexual

comment to eventually engaging in physical sexual

assault (i.e. rape), this current research focuses on

describing the mechanism of moral disengagement

on adult perpetrators of fornication (Page & Pina

2015). To investigate the role of adolescent of

fornication perpetrator’s belief, intrumental case

study method is used.

1.1 Moral Disengagement

Moral disengagement was first proposed by

Bandura. Moral disengagement is a process that

involves rationalization and justification when

individuals perform acts that deviate from morals or

ethics. Moral disengagement can be said to be a

cognitive restructurisation on deviant behavior.

Moral disengagement makes individuals perform

self-serving behaviors that are contrary to moral

principles while individuals do not feel negative

emotions such as feeling guilty, or ashamed

(Bandura, 1986).

There are eight ways of moral disengagement as

presented below:

1. Moral justification (moral justification):

Moral disengagement may be centered on moral

justification for moral offenses committed by

individuals. So it can be said that individual

rationalizes or finds a reason that can justify his

actions (Bandura, 2002). Through moral

The Mechanism of Moral Disengagement on Adolescent Perpetrators of Fornication

495

justification, individuals assume that their actions

have certain moral goals. Individuals regard

themselves as moral agents even though their

actions are detrimental to others (Bandura, 2002).

Beliefs or beliefs in groups can also be an

individual way of doing moral justifications

(Bandura, 1990c)The Soccer players used moral

justification to justify their fraud. They said that

his job was to anticipate the opponent's attack

even if he had to commit a minor offense.

Therefore they feel innocent when committing a

violation during a match (Traclet et al., 2011)

2. Palliative comparison / advantegous camparison:

an act can be judged on the basis of comparison

with other deeds. Through this comparison, the

individual can justify his actions because what he

does is judged more valuable, more profitable or

lighter than any other moral offense (Bandura,

2002). President Bush used a palliative

comparison when attacking Iraq. He considered

that resolving nonviolent problems was less

effective than invasion of Iraq (Cartledge,

Bowman-Grieve and Palasinski, 2015)

3. Euphemistic labeling language:

It can be used to refine unlawful acts committed

by individuals. Euphemism has been used

extensively to shape the perceptions of others so

that real cruel acts no longer sound cruel

(Bandura, 2002). Sexual harassers use euphemistic

labeling to describe and justify sexual harassment

behavior as an attempt to appear "friendly" or

"friendly" to the opposite sex when faced with

their actions. Sexual harassers may also insist that

their actions are merely "playing", or "joking"

(Quinn, 2002)

4. Displacement of responsibilty:

Individuals will commit unlawful acts more easily

when they are ordered by others who have

authority. Thus the individual does not need to be

responsible for the consequences of his actions

(Bandura, 2002). Displacement of responsibility

carried out by terrorists weakens moral control

and makes them even ignore the security and

welfare of the target group (Bandura, 1990a).

Followers often do not feel guilty when making

orders that have the potential to hurt others or

violate morals. The followers do it on behalf of

the boss's orders (Johnson, 2014). Especially if the

individual admires the leader, it will be easier to

follow orders even though they are destructive

(Carsten and Uhl-bien, 2016)

5. Diffusion of responsibility:

The role of moral control can be weak if

individuals feel exposed to the blurring of

responsibility for unlawful acts (Bandura, 2002).

Blur of responsibility is a process in the minds of

individuals regarding the consequences of

behavior (Beyer et al., 2016). If the consequences

are negative, individuals tend to avoid

responsibility, especially if the behavior is carried

out in tandem (Bandura, 1990b). Gang members

tend to do diffusion of responsibility when

committing crimes in a multicolored manner

(Alleyne, Fernandes and Pritchard, 2014).

6.Disregard or Distortion of Consequences: Another

way to weaken the role of moral control causing

individuals to easily violate the moral is to ignore

or minimize the consequences of his actions.

(Bandura, 2002). In soccer game, the soccer

players who commit violations also try to

minimize the impact of their fraudulent actions.

Thus, as if cheating they are doing is something

that is socially acceptable (Traclet et al., 2011).

7. The dehumanization:

individual is capable of inhumane or unlawful acts

if one assumes another person is inferior to him or

considers another person not as a human being

(Bandura, 2002). Degrading other humans can be

done to anyone, to women, ethnic minorities,

patients or people with disabilities (Haslam, 2006).

In case f gang ilence, sssuming other humans are

inferior, making individuals capable of hurting

others (Alleyne, Fernandes and Pritchard, 2014).

8. Attribution of blame:

Blaming other people (the victim) and the

environment is one of the ways people usually do

when performing unlawful or moral acts (Bandura,

2002). In rape cases, the offender can blame

women (Strömwall, Landström and Alfredsson,

2014). The perpetrators consider themselves to be

victims because they are affected by women's

appearance (Wolvendale, 2016)..

Based on research there are several factors that

have correlation with moral disengagement. Based

on the results of the study, men were more likely to

adopt moral disengagament than women (Cardwell

et al., 2015). In addition to gender, age factors also

make each individual have different levels of moral

disengagement. Individuals who are in their teens

have a higher level of moral disengagament than

those in childhood and adulthood (Cohn et al.,

2010). Another internal factor is the psychopathic

tendency. There is a difference in the degree of

moral disengagement in adolescents with high and

low psychopathic tendencies; individuals with high

psychopathic tendencies have higher moral

disengagement than adolescents with low

psychopathic tendencies (Dhingra et al., 2015).

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Empathy is negatively correlated with antisocial

behavior and moral disengagament (Hyde, Shaw and

Moilanen, 2010).

2 METHOD

This research was conducted using qualitative

approach of instrumental case study. According to

Stake (1995) the instrumental case study is chosen to

conduct a general and thorough understanding of a

problem by examining one case. In an instrumental

case study, data analysis is based on selected

theories as a frame of conceptual reference. In this

study, the theory used to understand adult

perpetrators of fornication is the moral

disengagement (Bandura 1986)

The research participants were teenagers who

had been found guilty of fornication by the court.

This is in accordance with the definition of juvenile

sex offender who was found guilty by the court for

committing a sexual offense. Sexual crimes consist

of sexual violence (rape, sexual assault) or related to

other crimes that have components of sexual crimes

such as rape accompanied by rape (Barbaree &

Marshal, 2006).

Participants come from juvenile prison in Blitar

city of East Java province, Indonesia. The number of

participants is 5 people, aged between 16-18 years.

One participants are still high school students, while

four participants had dropped out of school.

Participants come from several cities in the province

of East Java, Indonesia. The Family background of

each participant is different. One participant was

from a family whose parents were divorced, one

participant did not have parents, one participant

lived with his grandparents because his parents were

divorced, one participant lived with his mother while

his father worked out of town, and the last

participant lived with his grandparents since

childhood, event though his parents are still alive.

The following is the demographic data of the

participants

Table 1: Demographic data of the participants.

Initial

Age

Education

Family condition

Drop out

Divorced parents

Drop out

Both parents

died

Staying with an

old brother

Drop out

Staying with

grandparents

Drop out

Staying with

mother

Dad worked as a

masseur in

Jakarta

Grade 1

high school

Staying with

grandparents

Following research ethics, before the beginning

of the interview, the researcher introduced himself

explaining the purpose of the interview, explaining

that the participant could refuse to be interviewed.

After participants expressed their willingness to

engage in research, the participants signed informed

consent. After doing rapport, the interview process

was conducted.

The researcher was assisted by an assistant to

write down the interview result. Data analysis was

performed following the stages of data analysis from

Stake (1995). After reading the transcript of the

interview, the researchers categorized it by searching

for keywords. After finding the keywords, the

researchers gave a meaning to determine the moral

mechanism of disengagament in adult perpetrators

of fornication . Furthermore, to search for meaning

or understanding of cases of fornication by

adolescents, researchers created patterns for

consistency.

Enforcement of the credibility of research in a

qualitative research approach can basically be done

by using triangulation (Stake, 1995). In this study,

the researchers used triangulation of investigators by

asking other researchers or experts to interpret the

research data. The results of interpretation of other

researchers were then compared with the results of

interpretations that had been done by the

researchers. Both interpretation results were then

compared and discussed.

3 RESULT

Based on the data analysis, the participants used

moral disengagement to free themselves from

feelings of guilt for sexual immorality. Of the eight

mechanisms of moral disengagement proposed by

Bandura (1990), it turns out that only six

mechanisms of moral disengagement were found in

this study. The six moral mechanisms of such

disengagement are moral justification, euphemistic

labeling, diffusion of responsibility, distortion of

consequences, dehumanization, and attribution of

blame

The Mechanism of Moral Disengagement on Adolescent Perpetrators of Fornication

497

Table 2: Distribution of mechanisms of moral

disengagement.

Partic

ipant

Mechanisms of moral disengagement

Dis

p.R

Dif

f.R

Dis

t.C

√

annotation: MJ = moral justification; EU = euphemistic

labeling; AC = advantage of comparison;

Disp.R = Displacement of responsibility; Diff.

R = Diffusion of responsibility; Dist.C =

distortion of consequences; Dhum =

dehumanization; AB = attribution of blame

Moral justification

Bandura (1986) says that moral abusers often

have beliefs and perceptions of their morally

acceptable acts owned by their group or by

themselves. In this case, adult perpetrators of

fornication also use the mechanism of moral

justification. Adult perpetrators of fornication have

beliefs in their group that justify their behavior.

Adult perpetrators of fornication have the notion

that men are free to have sexual relations with

women. The invitation to have sex with a girlfriend

is done with seduction mode. There are also

teenagers who perpetrate violent conduct

accompanied by threats and violence in order for his

gilfriend to have sex. Two of the participants were

doing obscenity together with their group. For them,

attachment to group and friendship is more

important than girlfriend.

yes curious about how it feels, and if not trying, it is

not a man (N)

Yes, if I have no girlfriend, I am challenged to bring

a girl. (R)

A girlfriend is easy to find .. how shameful if we fight

because of girls.(R)

Euphemistic labeling

The more subtle terms and jargon are included in

this kind of moral mechanism of euphemistic

labeling. According to Bandura (1986) the use of

euphemistic labeling is to make the behavior of

moral violations committed by individuals look less

cruel or damaging. "Anget-angetan" sounds more

subtle than intercourse or sexual intercourse. The

use of the term "anget-angetan" gives the impression

that the act is more convenient to be done by the

adult perpetrators of fornication and the victim. It is

far from being negative.

In some groups of male adults, sometimes there

is a special language to refer to sexual intercourse.

Participant N and his friends will merely say “anget-

angetan” (Javanese language which means “warm”)

as a sign to have sex.

In addition to using more subtle language, adult

perpetrators of fornication sometimes use certain

jargon or a sentence of which the purpose is to

disguise their actions. According to the third

participant J, he and his friends will try hard to

produce a result from courtship – meaning that the

courtship has to result in having sexual intercourse

with a girlfriend. Participant J said that dating must

have a result. While Participant N was often

heralded by his friends that if he does not try having

sex, he is not a man.

Diffusion of responsibility

Adult perpetrators of fornication sometimes feel

irresponsible for their actions because the

fornication is done together with his friends. So

there is a blurring of responsibility or diffusion of

responsibility because it is done rollickingly. Every

actor considers other doers have to be responsible.

Bandura (1986) says that the role of moral control

can indeed be weakened when blurring

responsibility for unlawful acts exists.

The case of abuse by Participants J, F and R is an

example of a blurring of responsibility. Participant J

stated that he planned the fornication with his

friends. So participant J said that his friend was

more responsible. Participant F said that he was

invited by his friend to fornicate. Participant R was

invited by his gang to fornicate. Participant R also

recounted sometimes his group challenged one of his

members to bring a girlfriend. Then they committed

obscenity together. Another habit is deliberately

thrusting his girlfriend who would be disconnected

to his friends. If his girfriend agreed to have sex with

his friends then it would be a reason to disconnect

her. When asked if he felt responsible, Participant R

mentioned the name of one of his friends as the one

responsible.

Yeah mam ... me who phoned her ... I invited her ...

but initially it was not me, it was my friend (J)

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yes that was H ( a name of his friend) … He offered

me to join ... It was not my responsibility … (R)

I sat down near to the bed, my friend did it on the

bed, I saw them, then I was invited. My mind was

chaotic. I was like being possessed by demon. than I

did it (F).

Diffusion of responsibility also occurs due to habit.

Participants N, J and R, for instance, feel it is a

normal thing to do.

Huh, it was already a habit. When I had a girlfriend,

I felt I had to do, So I think it's natural to have sex

(N).

What I did…. hmm..well, it was usual thing (J).

Distortion of responsibility

Bandura (1986) explains that there are individual

efforts to ignore or minimize the impact on the

victim called the distortion of consequences

mechanism. The indicator of distortion of

consequences is to reduce the negative impact of the

action and not to see the consequences of the

harmful action. Reducing the negative impact of the

act, for example, means that the doer assumes that

the physical injury suffered by the victim is not

severe. While not wanting to see the consequences

of deeds means going away from the victim or not

wanting to see the victim. Thus the individual does

not have to think about the negative consequences of

his actions. This can remove feelings of guilt.

Adult perpetrators of fornication on average do

not want to know the circumstances of the victim.

They do not think about the impact of their actions

on the victim. This is revealed in their statement

At that time I did not want to think of the effect,

what the effcet on the girl was, I did not think of the

consequences. The important thing was I felt happy

(N).

no. .. I ...well just let it go. No thinking (R).

In addition to ignoring the victims, there are

several ways performed by adult perpetrators of

fornication . One attempt to minimize the

consequences of their abuse is to see the act of abuse

as a mutually beneficial action of both parties.

Participant N thinks that the girl (the victim) is to be

cared. Before or after the fornication, the victim is

invited to eat, walk, or given money. Adult

perpetrators of fornication assume that they have

incurred costs to please the victim so it is natural

that they also get rewarded from the victim.

After doing it, I invited her for coffee, for a walk (N).

yes I pay for the food .. .. take her for a walk. All is

spent on my money .. so reward should be there.. I

am pleasing her, so it was naturally if I have sex

with her. It's my reward after pleasing her. (R)

The protests from victims and negative sanctions

also determine the emergence of guilty feeling.

From interviews it was found that as long as the

victim did not give resistance, protest, show anger or

report to the police, the adult perpetrators of

fornication assume that there is no problem with

the victim. This is evident in Participant A who says

that at first he feels sorry for not being able to

control himself. Then the guilty feeling appears

thinking about his 12-year-old victim. However,

because there was no negative response from the

victim and the victim's parents, Participant A finally

assumed that what he did caused no problems. As

time passed by, the guilty feeling disappeared

eventually.

yes ...I think well there's nothing ... the families of

the victims did not know ... I think it is oke as there's

no problem ... (A)

yes in my mind it was ok. no law prroblem and then I

went to work. I did not intent to run (A).

Adult perpetrators of fornication also have other

ways not to feel guilty to the victim by doing other

activities. Participant A went to work. Participant J

has fun. While Participant N admitted overcoming

his fear by drinking liquor. By doing these activities,

the participants no longer think about the fate of the

victim.

well…by having an activity … the guilt was gone (A)

yes ... playing…having fun.. so I do not care

anymore (J)

Another way that adult perpetrators of

fornication do is to cut off the relationship with the

victim and find a new girlfriend. This method is

done by Participant J and Participant R. In this way,

they both no longer need to get in touch with the

victim and do not need to feel guilty.

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Because I feel did not comfortable .. so I decided to

end my relationship with my girl (J)

yes .. just let it go .... if I am bored, I just replace my

girl with a new one (R)

Dehumanization

Assuming the victim as a sexual object is the

way of eliminating guilt. From the persepective of

the theory of moral disengagement this way can be

categorized as dehumanization mechanism.

According to Bandura (1986) dehumanization is the

individual's perspective on the victim. The way to

dehumanize is to see the victim lower than the

individual or to view the victim as an object not as

an individual with feelings, concern and hope.

Since the beginning adult perpetrators of

fornication regard women as sexual objects. It is

revealed from the statement of participants N that he

had never had sexual intercourse with the victim and

he would force the victim to have sexual intercourse

with him. Similarly Participant A said that he only

vented the passions on the victim. Participants J and

R said that the girls were just for fun.

They prevalently perceive their girlfriends as

objects. Participant N, Participant J and Participant

R have the same opinion that a girlfriend is someone

to accompany a man when feeling lonely. The three

participants also had sex with their girlfriends. But

participant J had the criteria. He would choose a

naughty sexy girl to be invited to have sex. While

Participant R said that he had three girlfriends with

different functions. The first girlfriend was to

accompany him for a walk, the second girlfriend was

for her money and the third girlfriend was

specifically for sex. However after being asked

further, R confessed that he really had sex with all

his girlfriends. R said that in his group, girlfriends

were often used as an object of challenge.

I think the feeling will be different when we play sex

with a different girl. I have never tasted my victim

before (N)

so with the victim's I just vented my lust (A)

the girl is only for fun, well .. just like people say

that life without making love is like a flowerless

garden. (J)

Yes, even if he does not have a girlfriend, he would

be challenged to bring a girl (R)

Attribution of blame

Blaming the victim or the environment is the

classic way that is used by the sex offender. Sexual

offenders often say that they are provoked by the

victim's behavior so that they commit fornication.

Therefore they are not the ones guilty but the victim

is.

Adult perpetrators of fornication often avoid

being held accountable for their actions by blaming

the victim or the environment. They say that they

only react to the behavior of the victim. Sometimes

adult perpetrators of fornication say that they are

the victims of the bad environment (Bandura,

Barbaranelli and Caprara, 1996). Similarly, adult

perpetrators of fornication say that the victim was

guilty of having provoked them through her makeup,

her look, and her behavior (Bandura, 1986; Moor,

2010; Page & Pina, 2016).

Adult perpetrators of fornication consider that

the victim is a naughty girl. Victims are often drunk

so they feel innocent of committing sexual abuse.

The victim is the object to wreak sex drive. Adult

perpetrators of fornication also highlight the way

women dress in sexy tendencies. The appearance of

women causes them to be driven to fornication.

Participant N, for instance, thinks that the victim has

trapped him so he was caught.

yes the average is the same, wearing shorts, opening

clothes, wearing powder, wearing eyelashes, putting

lipstick and perfume so yeah... (N)

My victim was a naughty girl. She was often taken

by men (F).

She was accustomed to having sexual intercourse.

Well, that girl, well, how can I say it. She is often

taken by men to have a sex (J)

yes..anyway.. the women are willing to do so (R)

In addition to blaming the victim, the

surrounding environment is also a target to inflict

mistakes. Adult perpetrators of fornication say that

many people in their neighborhood are also doing

fornication. Participant N clearly said that many

people who have sex outside marriage even know

that the act is prohibited. What's on people's minds is

just having fun.

yes .. we did it directly there in the cafe. It was ok

with the guard .. you know ... it is ok ... ... the

internet cafe does not care ... (R)

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my father’s friends are also naughty (N)

Participants N, J, F and R felt innocent of their

actions. They assume that their deeds were

ordinary. They still did not feel guilty. While

participant A initially felt guilty and sorry for the

victim after doing fornication but because the

victims parents did not know or show anger,

gradually his feelings of guilt disappeared.

4 DISCUSSION

The results of this study generally support what has

been proposed by bandura (1986) about moral

disengagement. By reordering the cognition, the

adolescent can make the fornication without feeling

guilty. Cognitive distortion has an important role in

the emergence and repetition of fornication behavior

(Burn and Brown, 2006) another result is that there

are two moral mechanisms of disengagement that

are not used by adult perpetrators of fornication :

advantage of comparison and displacement if

responsibility.

As described in the moral theory of

disengagement, these adult perpetrators of

fornication have developed psychological

mechanisms that can support their intention to

commit obscenity in certain situations (Mckibbin et

al., 2008). Belief about male dominance of women

in sexual relationships held by adult perpetrators of

fornication is the source of a series of moral

mechanisms of disengagement. This can be seen

from the mechanism of moral justification,

euphemistic labeling, distortion of consequences,

dehumanization and attribution of blame .. In moral

justification emerges belief domination of men

against women. In distortion of consequences

adolesent perpetrator of fornication actors

underestimate negative impact for women. In fact,

they tend to think that women also get benefit from

being taken for a walk, bought food and drink. In

dehumanization it is clear that adult perpetrators of

fornication do not regard women as sexual objects

for men. While in case of the attribution of blame,

adult perpetrators of fornication actually assume

that women are guilty of wanting to seduce through

their appearance.

Until now, in Indonesia, patriarchal culture is

still developing. Men have a role as main control in

society, whereas women have a little influence or

almost have no right on general areas in society. As

a result, there are many social problem that harm

women, such as domestic violence or fornication

(Irma and Hasanah, 2017). In patriarchal culture,

sexual crimes are seen as the manivestation of

gender inequality and as a subordination mechanism

to women. Gender Inequality is usually experienced

by women (Brahmana, Suryanto & Suyanto, 2018).

In patriarchal culture, Seeing women as sexual

objects is still a common practice in the community.

Many aspects of society that are related to sexuality

reflect male domination of women. Patriarchal

culture places men as dashing parties and have a

freedom to do anything to women (Irma and

Hasanah, 2017). Research conducted in Indonesia

also shows that one of the factors causing sexual

abuse is the assumption that women are a weak

creatures so they cannot fight if forced to have

sexual relations (Kusumawati et al., 2014).

Pornography, prostitution, the role of women as

sexual objects in films and so on reflect the views of

patriarchal society that degrade women (Macionis,

2009). As a result of women's objectification, men

often use the moral mechanism of attribution or

blame disengagement. They blame women. Many

men regard women as deliberately attractive and

sexy to tempt men's sexual desire, whereas women

do not intend to do so (Moor, 2010). This is

accordance with the research result in Indonesia that

Indonesian men perception on violence against

women are blaming the women,, denial and

exonerating the male perpetrator (Nilan, 2014).

Adult perpetrators of fornication view their

violation behavior as a reward for what they have

done for the girls. Reward is all things or ways so

that intimate relationships can meet the needs and

desires of the couple. Sacrifice is the consequence

(Darfiyanti and Putra, 2012). This condition is as

stated in the theory of social exchange proposed by

Thibaut and Kelly (1959) Individuals tend to judge

their relationship with others as something that

should match with the cost incurred.

Many adult perpetrators of fornication used

diffusion of responsibility, distortion of

consequences and dehumanization to avoid guilty

feeling. Characteristics of participants is in the age

of adolescents. Teenagers usually do conformity to

their friends (Leary-kelly and Bowes-sperry, 2001)..

Conformity leads to diffusion of responsibilities.

In the case of molestation, the distortion of

consequences occurs because the perpetrator cannot

place himself in the position of another person (Lane

& Ryan, 2010) so that the perpetrators fail to

recognize the negative impact experienced by

women victims of abuse (Leary-kelly and Bowes-

sperry, 2001). Sometimes perpetrators of sexual

abuse assume that molestation of bad women will

The Mechanism of Moral Disengagement on Adolescent Perpetrators of Fornication

501

not cause psychological impact (Byrne, Hansen and

Rapley, 2008).

Besides, because of wrong perception about

gender, dehumanization is also about lack of

empathy (Feilhauer et al., 2013). Many adult

perpetrators of fornication have low empathy so they

cannot appreciate a victim. Thus, make them commit

to crime easily

5 THEORY AND PRACTICAL

IMPLICATION

The results of this study indicate that in the case of

adult perpetrators of fornication , the displacement

of responsibility and advantage of comparison are

not used. The absence of displacement of

responsibility may be due to the lack of clear

leadership hierarchy as in formal organizations.

They are all equal. The acts committed in groups is

also not because of the order of the higher members

of the hierarchy. It is rather the agreement of the

members of the group involved. Therefore, the five

participants involved in the research did not show

the form of displacement of responsibility

mechanism.

The form of mechanism of advantage of

comparison does not appear because the adult

perpetrators of fornication did not compare their

fornication with other forms of sexual crime.

Fornication in this study is defined as unwanted

sexual acts experienced by women or victims,

whether accompanied by violence, coercion, threat

or seduction. This definition when compared to

restrictions on the type of sexual harassment,

(Stocdale, 1996) what all participants had done can

be classified into sexual forms of unwanted sexuality

by women and forced sexual intercourse. Both thus

types of sexual harassment are worse than the other

types of sexual harassment. This is in contrast to

people who only do gender harassment sexual

harassment. They can perform a mechanism of

advantage of comparison by comparing it with other

types of worse sexual abuse like rape or fornication

(Page & Pina, 2016). Therefore, adult perpetrators of

fornication in this study do not use the form of

moral mechanism disengagement advantage of

comparison.

The results of this study could be used as a

consideration for a cognitive restructuring recovery

program. Adult perpetrators of fornication can

follow counseling that emphasizes the behavioral

cognitive model. The government or the school can

develop character education as an effort to prevent

male adolescents from doing harassment to a girl.

The education of this character should emphasize the

cognitive domain

6 LIMITATIONS OF RESEARCH

In this research there is a limitation that all

participants come from East Java province. If

participants come from different provinces, different

answers may be available. In addition, it may further

strengthen the findings about the pattern of moral

disengagament performed by adult perpetrators of

fornication Further research can expand the research

in some other areas in Indonesia to get the form of

different mechanisms of moral disengagement.

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