Women and men sexually violated by closely related perpetrators over a lifespan. Prevalence, revictimization, and association to adverse childhood conditions and experiences

Abstract

BackgroundBeing sexually violated by a perpetrator to whom one has strong emotional and social ties may be exceedingly traumatic as it involves a serious betrayal and violation of basic trust. ObjectiveTo examine the prevalence and revictimization of this type of sexual violence in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood and its covariance with adverse psychosocial conditions and experiences in childhood. Participants and settingA representative sample of 10,337 Swedish women and men aged 18–74. MethodA combined online and postal survey. Attrition bias was adjusted for by a calibration and weighting procedure based on official register information. Logistic regression was applied to calculate odds ratios (OR) and adjusted odds ratios (AOR). ResultsThe results showed that 25% of the women and 7% of the men had been sexually violated by closely related perpetrators at some time in their life. Victimization in childhood generated an OR of 4.3 (p < .001) for revictimization in adulthood. Most psychosocial indicators of an adverse childhood situation were significantly linked (OR) to victimization of sexual violence, but insignificant when controlling for the influence of confounders (AOR). The importance of the total burden of psychosocial childhood adversity was illustrated in that 12% of women and 2% of men without indicators of an adverse childhood situation were sexually victimized in adulthood, while the corresponding figures for those reporting at least nine aspects of an adverse childhood situation were 47% and 15%, respectively. ConclusionThe importance of integrating sexual victimization into a holistic psychosocial context in prevention and treatment was emphasized.