The Prevalence and Characteristics of Male Perpetrators of Acquaintance Rape

Abstract

Previous research has found that whereas 15% to 25% of college women report being the victims of acquaintance rape, only 4% to 15% of men report committing acquaintance rape. This study follows Kazdin's suggestion to use all of the potentially important components to attempt to find a result when previous researchers have failed to achieve significant findings. A new methodology is used to attempt to find a percentage of males who admit to committing acquaintance rape that is commensurate with the percentage of women reporting that they were victims. The results indicate that although an alcoholexpectancy manipulation was not related to admission of involvement in acquaintance rape, the new methodological conditions (i.e., consumption of a nonalcoholic beer, a sexually explicit story, a private room, and a male experimenter) successfully resulted in a higher percentage of men reporting that they perpetrated sexual aggression and acquaintance rape. Specifically, 24% of the men admitted committing acquaintance rape based on a broad definition, and 10% admitted committing acquaintance rape based on a stringent definition of acquaintance rape. Suggestions are provided for further research.