In an effort to find out whether other criminals convicted for crimes other than rape were as unrepentant as the rapists she spoke to, Pandey interviewed 65 convicted murderers in the same jail. She found that their attitudes were notably different. “With few exceptions, the murderers clearly blamed themselves for their crimes,” she says. “Whether it was premeditated or an act committed in a moment of irrational anger, they regretted it and realized how their actions had affected other people or destroyed lives. This was not the case with the rapists.”

Perhaps, she says, “when you have a dead body, you are far more accountable.”