The Revised Sexual Experiences Survey Victimization Version (SES-V): Conceptualization, Modifications, Items and Scoring

"I Think You Covered the Three Levels of Drugs and Consent": Qualitatively Testing Different Operationalizations of an Alcohol and Other Drugs-Involved Sexual Violence

Substance-involved rape is increasing among college students, particularly women (Koss et al., 2022). Addressing rape requires first measuring it accurately in surveys to understand its true scope and nature. We used cognitive interviews with 40 young adults to qualitatively test the construct validity of an alcohol- and other drugs (AOD)-involved rape item in the Sexual Experiences Survey by asking participants to comment on different operationalizations of this construct. Our findings revealed that different phrasings elicited different interpretations of the items by participants. Specifically, the results indicated that (1) respondents viewed the different operationalizations as a sequence of events with varying severity; (2) some participants focused on the intentionality and responsibility of the perpetrator as opposed to opportunistic perpetration; and (3) study participants consistently chose one of the operationalizations as describing "being roofied" (being drugged without consent). Participants also contributed additional scenarios not described in the questionnaire and shared their interpretations of the items. The results underscore the importance of refining survey language to properly measure AOD-involved rape and allow us to understand how to tailor appropriate questions for best comprehension. The findings indicate the benefit in including several items about AOD-involved rape in questionnaires such as the Sexual Experiences Survey, with each item addressing different scenarios of victim intoxication. The results could also have important implications for sexual violence prevention programs, which should discuss consent, intentions, and responsibility specifically in the context of AOD consumption.

Gender Differences in Sexual Violence Victimization Experiences and Validity of Victimization Reports: A Think-Aloud Study

This study compared the qualitative nature of women and men's sexual violence (SV) victimization, the types of experiences captured and missed on the Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Victimization (SES-SFV) across genders, and common interpretations of the SES-SFV items. Fifty-four university students (31 women, 21 cis men, 2 trans men) who had recent unwanted (but not necessarily nonconsensual) sexual experiences thought out loud while privately completing the SES-SFV. They also typed descriptions of experiences reported on SES-SFV items or similar experiences when nothing was reported on an item. Results indicated that women's victimization was more frequent and severe than cis men's, except when men were victimized by men. Although verbal coercion was common across genders, event descriptions indicated that women's verbal coercion experiences were more often harsh and part of a partner's ongoing SV or coercive control. The findings suggest that quantitative measurement can mask important gender differences in victimization and (based on analysis of false positives and negatives) may underestimate rape and attempted rape experiences, especially women's. Findings suggested that responding to the SES-SFV was not traumatic or distressing. However, participants sometimes expressed confusion about the items and interpreted them in unintended ways.

Expanding the Sexual Experiences Survey to Include Technology Facilitated Sexual Exploitation

The Sexual Experiences Survey is the most widely used measure of sexual assault victimization and perpetration among college students. To improve comprehensiveness and inclusiveness, the current revision of the victimization items of the SES (SES-V; Koss et al., 2024) included the addition of a module focusing on Technology Facilitated Sexual Exploitation (TFSE). The current paper outlines why the inclusion of items related to TFSE was necessary, and describes the development of the items making up this module of the SES-V. The module consists of 10 items that map onto seven domains: receipt of sexual materials, target of unwanted sexual comments, threatened sharing of sexually explicit images, actual sharing of sexually explicit images, target of sexual solicitation, threatened sharing of images of sexual exploitation, and actual sharing of images of sexual exploitation. Consistent with how the other types of sexual exploitation are assessed in the SES-V (Koss et al., 2024), respondents indicate how many times they have experienced these events since their 14th birthday and use an 11-point response format ranging from 0 to 10 or more times per experience. The addition of the new module on TFSE to the SES-V will ensure researchers assess both in-person and cyber modalities of sexual exploitation.

Preliminary Evidence of Validity for the Verbally Pressured and Illegal Sexual Exploitation Modules of the Sexual Experiences Survey-Victimization

The Sexual Experiences Survey-Victimization (SES-V; see Koss et al., 2024) revises the prior 2007 Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Victimization (SES-SFV) in many ways, including expanded measurement of verbally pressured and illegal sexual exploitation, as well as the addition of items that assess being made to perform a sexual act or to penetrate another person sexually. The current article describes two initial validity studies of the SES-V. Study 1 compared rates of self-reported verbal pressure and illegal sexual exploitation (e.g. rape) on a preliminary version of the SES-V and the SES-SFV in a sample of higher education students who completed both questionnaires online in a randomized order (N = 460). As expected, the preliminary SES-V produced higher rates than the SES-SFV, and continuous scores were strongly correlated. Responses to the made-to-penetrate (MTP) items suggested that some cisgender men and women may have misunderstood those items. Study 2 explored responses to the MTP items further by randomly assigning participants to complete items with either the Study 1 MTP language (n = 269) or revised language (n = 245). The revised language produced fewer implausible responses and was adopted in the final version of the SES-V. These findings provide initial support for the validity of the SES-V and the value of expanding the conceptualization of victimization to include a wider range of sexual exploitation. A research agenda for future validity research is suggested.

Preliminary Prevalence Estimates of Sexual Exploitation as Measured by the Sexual Experiences Survey-Victimization (SES-V) in a National US Sample

The new Sexual Experiences Survey-Victimization (SES-V) was designed to capture a larger range of sexual exploitation and to be applicable to more diverse populations than prior measures. This study represents the first administration of the SES-V in a national sample of adults (N = 347). Participants were recruited from a crowdsourcing platform and selected to reflect the national distribution in terms of age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Rates of sexual exploitation since age 14 were very high in this sample (90%), providing evidence that the SES-V was successful in capturing experiences on the low end of the severity continuum. Using the items corresponding to the FBI definition of rape, 60% of women and 29% of men endorsed rape on the SES-V. Compared to men, women reported higher rates of sexual exploitation overall, and higher rates of every type of sexual exploitation except technology-facilitated. The new SES-V also asks participants to estimate the number of separate instances of four types of sexual exploitation that they have experienced; results provided support for the value of these incident estimates in understanding the scope of sexual exploitation. Finally, this study evaluated new sexual acts and exploitative tactics that were added to the SES-V and found that they demonstrated utility and validity. These findings offer preliminary support for the validity and functionality of the SES-V, although the high prevalence of sexual exploitation on the SES-V is discussed as both a strength and limitation. Future research should evaluate prevalence and demographic differences in a larger national sample.

Words Can Hurt: A Taxonomy of Verbally Pressured Sexual Exploitation in the SES-V

This article describes the development of the Verbally Pressured Sexual Exploitation module of the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES)-Victimization (introduced by Koss et al., 2024). This module assesses the use of verbal or nonphysical, paraverbal pressure to obtain sexual acts without freely given permission. An interdisciplinary team of seven sexual exploitation researchers collaborated to create this module, with consultation from the full 15 member SES-V revision collaboration team. In this paper, we describe our process for developing this module. We briefly review empirical literature and theoretical frameworks (e.g., rape scripts, normative sexual scripts, intersectionality, and sex-positivity) that informed this work. Summary tables compare the SES-V items to verbal pressure items in prior versions of the SES and to other existing measures of violence. The comprehensive taxonomy developed herein includes six domains of Verbally Pressured sexual exploitation across 11 item stems. The components of the taxonomy include: positive verbal pressure, neutral verbal pressure, negative verbal pressure, substance-related pressure, postural violence, and threats to critical resources. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research, with priority on intersectional research that can illuminate the phenomenology and contexts of sexual exploitation against marginalized groups.

Quantifying Criminal Sexual Acts: The Illegal Sexual Exploitation Module of the Revised Sexual Experiences Survey-Victimization (SES-V) Measure

Since the initial development of the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) four decades ago, the SES has been designed to measure a range of forms of sexual exploitation, including acts that are coercive but not legally sanctioned as well as acts that legally qualify as crimes. That feature was retained in the revised Sexual Experiences Survey-Victimization (SES-V) measure. This article reviews the theoretical and empirical literature that guided the development of the Illegal Sexual Exploitation module of the SES-V, which measures experiences of nonconsensual exploitation resulting in sexual contact and which is designed to correspond to legal definitions across multiple jurisdictions. This article addresses research and applied contexts in which the distinction between legal and illegal sexual exploitation is important and the challenges and limitations involved in writing survey items that correspond to legal definitions. It also discusses revisions made to the items that make up the Illegal Sexual Exploitation module of the SES-V as compared to the illegal items in prior versions of the SES, including a new operationalization of non-consent and an expansion of the sexual acts and exploitative tactics that are included. Finally, the article discusses directions for future research on the Illegal Sexual Exploitation module of the SES-V.