Individual and situational influences on men's responses to dating and social situations

Risk factors of sexual violence perpetration and victimization among adolescents: A study of Norwegian high school students

Sexual violence among adolescents represents a significant problem in society. In this study, we aimed to examine risk factors for sexual violence perpetration in adolescent men and victimization in adolescent women among a community sample of Norwegian high school students. The participants (560 men and 751 women, aged between 16 and 21 years) responded to online questionnaires covering physical and non-physical forms of sexual harassment and possible risk factors identified in the literature. Last year's prevalence rate of physical sexual perpetration reported by adolescent men was 7%. Comparably, the prevalence of physical sexual victimization reported by adolescent women was 30%. Path analyses suggest that sociosexuality was associated with adolescent men's sexual perpetration indirectly through sexual risk taking, alcohol intoxication, porn exposure, and sexual underperception that in turn was positively associated with undesirable non-physical solicitation from and toward women. In addition, rape stereotypes were associated with perpetration behavior in adolescent men. For adolescent women, sociosexuality was associated with being sexually victimized primarily through sexual risk behavior, alcohol intoxication, and sexual overperception. These factors were again positively associated with sexual derogation from adolescent women and solicitation from adolescent men. Prior sexual abuse victimization was only indirectly associated with victimization. The factors associated with adolescent men's perpetration and adolescent women's victimization were highly similar. Future work aimed at reducing sexual violence in adolescence within the educational context might find it more effective to specifically target non-physical forms of sexual harassment.

Alcohol Use, Rape Myth Acceptance, Rape Empathy, and Sexual Assault History Influence the Believability of a Hypothetical Victim's Report of Sexual Assault

College sexual assault is a common problem, and survivors often do not report their experience to college campus officials or law enforcement for fear of not being believed. This study examined how contextual factors such as alcohol use and whether the perpetrator was described as a student-athlete or student, and rater characteristics, such as the history of sexual assault and attitudes toward rape, influenced college students' perceptions of the believability of a hypothetical victim's sexual assault account. In all, 449 (N = 449) undergraduates read a vignette describing a hypothetical sexual assault and were assigned randomly to one of four conditions with varying contextual features: college athlete-no alcohol, college athlete-alcohol, college student-no alcohol, or college student-alcohol. They then rated how much they believed the victim in the vignette had been raped (0 [not at all] to 100 [completely]). The presence of alcohol use in the vignette was associated with lower ratings of believability, and participants who were higher in rape myth acceptance and lower in rape empathy rated the hypothetical victim's rape account as less believable. In addition, women who had been raped previously rated the victim in the vignette as more believable than women with no history of sexual assault. Implications for how college campuses might respond more effectively to reported sexual assaults are discussed.

Perceptions of Incapacitated Heterosexual Sexual Assault: Influences of Relationship Status, Perpetrator Intoxication, and Post-Assault Sleeping Arrangements

This investigation explored college students' victim-blaming behaviors in perceptions of incapacitated rape. Participants received a vignette about a man who had sexual intercourse with a woman who had lost consciousness due to alcohol, with the conditions varied across the vignettes: the relationship between the parties, the alcohol use of the man, and the post-assault sleeping arrangements. Results revealed that when the man was a stranger, participants attributed less responsibility for the incident to him, but were more likely to label the incident as "rape." Neither the alcohol use of the man nor the post-assault sleeping arrangements significantly influenced participants' perceptions.

Using Experimental Paradigms to Examine Alcohol's Role in Men's Sexual Aggression: Opportunities and Challenges in Proxy Development

The goals of this article are to review the major findings from alcohol administration studies that use sexual aggression proxies and to encourage additional experimental research that evaluates hypotheses about the role of alcohol in the etiology of men's sexual aggression. Experiments allow participants to be randomly assigned to drink conditions, therefore ensuring that any differences between drinkers and nondrinkers can be attributed to their alcohol consumption. One of the biggest challenges faced by experimental researchers is the identification of valid operationalizations of key constructs. The tension between internal and external validity is particularly problematic for violence researchers because they cannot allow participants to engage in the target behavior in the laboratory. The strengths and limitations associated with written vignettes, audiotapes, videotapes, and confederate proxies for sexual aggression are described. Suggestions are made for future research to broaden the generalizability of the findings from experimental research.

Sexual dating aggression across grades 8 through 12: timing and predictors of onset

Investigators have identified a number of factors that increase risk for physical and psychological dating abuse perpetration during adolescence, but as yet little is known about the etiology of sexual dating aggression during this critical developmental period. This is an important gap in the literature given that research suggests that patterns of sexual dating violence that are established during this period may carry over into young adulthood. Using a sample of 459 male adolescents (76 % White, 19 % Black), the current study used survival analysis to examine the timing and predictors of sexual dating aggression perpetration onset across grades 8 through 12. Risk for sexual dating aggression onset increased across early adolescence, peaked in the 10th grade, and desisted thereafter. As predicted based on the Confluence Model of sexual aggression, associations between early physical aggression towards peers and dates and sexual aggression onset were stronger for teens reporting higher levels of rape myth acceptance. Contrary to predictions, inter-parental violence, prior victimization experiences, and parental monitoring knowledge did not predict sexual dating aggression onset. Findings support the notion that risk factors may work synergistically to predict sexual dating aggression and highlight the importance of rape myth acceptance as a construct that should be addressed by violence prevention programs.