Predictors Of Sexual Coercion Research Articles

Exploring Rape Myth Acceptance and Psychopathy as Predictors of Sexual Coercion

ABSTRACT Evidence suggests certain psychological traits and inaccurate cognitions or beliefs are important predictors of sexual coercion. While research has demonstrated that psychopathic traits are one of the best sexual aggression predictors, research has also shown the importance of rape myth acceptance as a predictor. Although both constructs have significant evidence supporting their predictive power with sexual coercion, some recent research has found that the relationship between rape myth acceptance and sexual coercive tactics was negated with the addition of psychopathy scores. The current study seeks to extend this previous researchby using a larger sample of college males (N = 481), different measures of rape myth acceptance and psychopathy, and both retrospective and prospective methods. The results of the current study partially support previous findings, but also demonstrate differences in the predictive utility of rape myth acceptance and psychopathy constructs in the prospective prediction. Both psychopathy, particularly callousness, and rape myth acceptance were significant predictors of the sample’s intention of using both verbal and illegal sexual coercive tactics.

What Money Can't Buy: Different Patterns in Decision Making About Sex and Money Predict Past Sexual Coercion Perpetration.

Self-reported impulsivity has been found to predict the perpetration of sexual coercion in both sexual offenders and male college students. Impulsivity can be conceptualized as a generalized lack of self-control (i.e., general perspective) or as a multifaceted construct that can vary from one context to the other (i.e., domain-specific perspective). Delay discounting, the tendency to prefer sooner smaller rewards over larger delayed rewards, is a measure of impulsive decision making. Recent sexual adaptations of delay discounting tasks can be used to test domain-specific assumptions. The present study used the UPPS-P impulsivity questionnaire, a standard money discounting task, and a sexual discounting task to predict past use of sexual coercion in a sample of 98 male college students. Results indicated that higher negative urgency scores, less impulsive money discounting, and more impulsive sexual discounting all predicted sexual coercion. Consistent with previous studies, sexuality was discounted more steeply than money by both perpetrators and non-perpetrators of sexual coercion, but this difference was twice as large in perpetrators compared to non-perpetrators. Our study identified three different predictors of sexual coercion in male college students: a broad tendency to act rashly under negative emotions, a specific difficulty to postpone sexual gratification, and a pattern of optimal non-sexual decision making. Results highlight the importance of using multiple measures, including sexuality-specific measures, to get a clear portrait of the links between impulsivity and sexual coercion.

Predictors of sexual coercion among a cohort of Medunsa undergraduate students

Background: Sexual coercion is a well-documented area of research in developed countries. However, this problem is not adequately addressed South Africa, particularly in settings like colleges and university campuses. The study aimed to investigate the predictors of sexual coercion among female undergraduate students at the University of Limpopo; Medunsa Campus, South Africa. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study using the Sexual Experience Survey (SES) tool administered to 335 female students registered for the 2010 academic year. Results: Almost a third (28.7%) of the students experienced sexual coercion which is slightly closer to the international prevalence of 25%. Types of sexual coercion acts included attempted verbal coercion, verbal coercion, date rape, attempted rape, and rape. Date rape was the least unwanted sexual act (2%) experienced by respondents and the highest was rape at 10.7%. Sample mean age was 21 years with the age of 17 to 47 years was more than expected because of the MBCHB program (min period 7yrs). In this study majority of perpetrators of rape were not intimate partners and we found age was not associated with sexual coercion at Medunsa Campus both within the past 12 months and since the age of 14 years. For the students who reside on campus, the odds of being a victim of attempted verbal coercion was 2.085 compared to those students who reside off campus. Conclusion: Sexual assaults in the university campuses are endemic. Attention needs to be given to rape as it is the most frequent unwanted sexual act experienced by female undergraduate students at Medunsa Campus.

Predictors of Sexual Coercion Against Women and Men: A Multilevel, Multinational Study of University Students

Several explanations have been forwarded to account for sexual coercion in romantic relationships. Feminist theory states that sexual coercion is the result of male dominance over women and the need to maintain that dominance; however, studies showing that women sexually coerce men point towards weaknesses in that theory. Some researchers have, therefore, suggested that it is the extent to which people view the other gender as hostile that influences these rates. Furthermore, much research suggests that a history of childhood sexual abuse is a strong risk factor for later sexual victimization in relationships. Few researchers have empirically evaluated the first two explanations and little is known about whether sexual revictimization operates for men or across cultures. In this study, hierarchical linear modeling was used to investigate whether the status of women and adversarial sexual beliefs predicted differences in sexual coercion across 38 sites from around the world, and whether sexual revictimization operated across genders and cultures. Participants included 7,667 university students from 38 sites. Results showed that the relative status of women at each site predicted significant differences in levels of sexual victimization for men, in that the greater the status of women, the higher the level of forced sex against men. In addition, differences in adversarial sexual beliefs across sites significantly predicted both forced and verbal sexual coercion for both genders, such that greater levels of hostility towards women at a site predicted higher levels of forced and verbal coercion against women and greater levels of hostility towards men at a site predicted higher levels of forced and verbal coercion against men. Finally, sexual revictimization occurred for both genders and across all sites, suggesting that sexual revictimization is a cross-gender, cross-cultural phenomenon. Results are discussed in terms of their contributions to the literature, limitations of the current study, and suggestions for future research.

Sexual Coercion, Physical Violence, and HIV Infection Among Women in Steady Relationships in Kigali, Rwanda

The relationship between sexual coercion, physical violence, and HIV serostatus was examined at 24 months of follow-up in a cohort of 921 women with steady partners in Kigali, Rwanda. One third of the women reported sexual coercion, and physical violence perpetrated by their male partner was reported by 21%. Sexual coercion was associated with women being HIV-positive, and physical violence was associated with their partner testing HIV-positive. Independent predictors of sexual coercion included the woman being HIV-positive, refusal to have sex, condom negotiation, financial inequality, and male partner's alcohol use. Independent predictors of physical violence were similar to predictors of sexual coercion. Sexual coercion and physical violence are public health issues relevant to HIV prevention, and are associated with financial and sexual gender power differentials. Results suggest the need to expand HIV behavioral interventions to address women's economic and cultural realities.

Sexual Coercion and Attraction to Sexual Aggression in a Community Sample of Young Men

Few studies have examined sexually coercive behavior in nonoffending yound adults other than college students. The present investigation examined self-report measures of peer delinquency, sexual promiscuity, hostility toward women, anger, and alcohol consumption on dates as predictors of sexual coercion and attraction to sexual aggression in a cross section of 65 nonoffending young men from a rural community. Delinquency was the strongest predictor of both coercive sexual behavior and attraction to sexual aggression. Attraction to sexual aggression also was significantly predicted by hostility toward women. Individuals with no histories of committing sexually coercive acts but who were highly attracted to sexual aggression shared profiles similar to sexually coercive men on hostility toward women, delinquency, and alcohol consumption on dates. Sexually noncoercive men low on attraction scored significantly lower than sexually coercive men on hostility toward women and alcohol consumption on dates and reported significantly less delinquent behavior than both other groups.

Sexual aggression and love styles: an exploratory study.

The relationship between sexual aggression and theoretical love styles was studied. Based on self-reported sexual history, 63 college men were grouped as having either consensual sexual experience only (n = 33) or having verbally coercive sexual experience (n = 30). Analyses were conducted using six love style scales, likelihood to rape, likelihood to use sexual force, masculinity, and sociopathy to predict sexual coercive group membership. Logistic regression indicated that the Ludus love style, a manipulative, game-playing orientation towards intimate relationships, was the best predictor of sexual coercion among the six love styles. Additionally, logistic regression indicated that the Ludus love style was as effective in classifying men as coercive or noncoercive as other dispositions related to sexual aggression. These results suggest that the Ludus love style may serve as a unifying construct for dispositions related to sexual aggression. This study constitutes an initial attempt to link sexually coercive behaviors to a theoretical model of intimate relationships. Results are discussed in the context of a situational model of sexual coercion.