Association between child sexual abuse and sexual revictimization in adulthood among women sex partners of injection drug users

Community-recruited women (n = 1490) were interviewed about their early and adult sexual victimization histories to determine whether there was an association between child sexual abuse and adult revictimization by sex partners and strangers/nonsex partners. Adolescent sexual abuse, lifetime sex-trading, drug treatment, and mental health treatment were examined as mediating variables. One-fourth of the women had been revictimized (i.e., experienced child sexual abuse and at least one instance of adult sexual victimization). Child sexual abuse was associated with both rape and other sexual victimization by a sex partner in adulthood, as well as adult rape by a stranger/nonsex partner. Drug and mental health treatments reduced abused women's chances of being raped by a sex partner; drug treatment also decreased the likelihood of other sexual victimization by a sex partner. Sex-trading increased abused women's likelihood of rape by a stranger or nonsex partner. Intervention--including drug treatment--can help women with child sexual abuse histories overcome some of the abuse-related sequelae that make them vulnerable to adult revictimization.     

College women's experiences of psychological maltreatment and sexual assault

A sample of 648 college women recruited from undergraduate psychology classes was examined to explore the relationship between past psychological maltreatment and sexual assault. Based on responses to the Sexual Experiences Survey and the Psychological Maltreatment Inventory, women were classified by level of unwanted sexual contact (i.e., vaginal or anal intercourse; oral genital contact and/or object penetration; or kissing and/or fondling), by method used to obtain the sexual assault (i.e., women were classified as experiencing coerced assaults, forced assaults, or both), and by identity of perpetrator (i.e., acquaintances or strangers). Results pointed to significant differences in the amount of past psychological maltreatment reported by women experiencing any type of assault as compared to women without assault experiences, regardless of perpetrator identity. Moreover, higher levels of psychological maltreatment were associated with having experienced any type of coerced sexual activities. There were no differences by type of assault. Finally, a series of ANOVAs was conducted to examine the interaction between coercion and force in the psychological maltreatment reported by women experiencing different forms of assault. With few exceptions, greater maltreatment was associated both with the occurrence of coerced assaults and with the occurrence of forced assaults. A significant interaction was seen with one form of assault, unwanted kissing and/or fondling perpetrated by an acquaintance. This interaction may suggest that, at least for this one form of contact perpetrated by acquaintances, the presence of past psychological maltreatment is uniquely associated with experiencing adult sexual assaults involving both force and coercion.     

College women's perceived risk to experience sexual victimization: a prospective analysis

This study implemented a prospective design to explore college women's perceived risk to experience sexual victimization over a 2-month interim (N = 143). Compared to women without such histories, women with a history of unwanted sexual contact via arguments/ pressure, or a history of unwanted sexual intercourse via administration of alcohol/drugs reported higher perceived risk to subsequently experience these forms of victimization. Compared to women who were not victimized, women who subsequently experienced unwanted sexual intercourse via administration of alcohol/drugs or arguments/pressure reported higher levels of risk to experience these forms of victimization. Controlling for victimization history, higher levels of risk to experience sexual intercourse over the interim via arguments predicted this form of victimization over the follow-up. Implications are discussed.     

Understanding types,locations, & perpetrators of peer-to-peer sexual harassment in U.S. middle schools: A focus on sex,racial, and grade differences

This study employed a mixed-method design to examine sexual harassment victimization among American middle school youth (grades 5–8). Students completed a self-report measure of sexual harassment victimization and indicated where sexual harassment occurs in their school. They responded to open-ended questions about the most upsetting incident they experienced and identified characteristics of perpetrators (N = 858). Verbal victimization (e.g., unwanted sexual commentary and homophobic name-calling) was more frequent than physical victimization and sexual assault. The types of sexual harassment experienced and the perpetrators varied by sex, race, and grade level. Sexual harassment occurred most frequently in hallways, followed by classrooms, gym locker rooms, gym class, lunch room, and outside of the school. The most upsetting unwanted incidents included (1) verbal - homophobic language; (2) verbal - sexual commentary and sexual rumor spreading; (3) physical – being touched; (4) pulling down pants; (5) being sexually assaulted; and (6) dismissiveness of victimization. Girls reported other boys as perpetrators; whereas, boys reported their perpetrators as other boys and close friends. For African-American students, perpetrators were identified as older and romantic partners. For White students, perpetrators were reported as same-age peers and friends. Understanding and recognizing what constitutes sexual harassment and where it most commonly occurs among early adolescence is critical to preventing sexual harassment into late adolescence.     

Resiliency factors in the relation between childhood sexual abuse and adulthood sexual assault in college-age women

Research has suggested that childhood sexual abuse (CSA) may be a risk factor for adulthood sexual assault. This study examined associations between CSA experiences, cognitive resiliency variables, and revictimization. Participants were 73 college-age females who completed self-report questionnaires assessing CSA, adult assault, self-efficacy, locus of control (LOC), and coping styles. Sexual assault was categorized as forced or coerced assault based on the tactics used by the perpetrator. Results indicated that CSA alone was the strongest independent predictor of forced adult assault; however, LOC and positive coping were associated with resiliency to coercive sexual assault. The current findings have clinical implications in that LOC and coping styles are characteristics that can be enhanced through therapy.     

Number of sexual partners and sexual assertiveness predict sexual victimization: do more partners equal more risk?

In previous studies, number of sexual partners and sexual assertiveness were examined as independent risk factors for sexual victimization among college women. Using a sample of 335 college women, this study examined the interaction of number of sexual partners and sexual assertiveness on verbal sexual coercion and rape. Approximately 32% of the sample reported unwanted sexual intercourse, 6.9% (n = 23) experienced verbal sexual coercion, 17.9% (n = 60) experienced rape, and 7.2% (n = 24) experienced both. As number of sexual partners increased, instances of verbal sexual coercion increased for women low in relational sexual assertiveness but not for women high in relational sexual assertiveness. A similar relationship was not found for rape. Among women who experienced both verbal sexual coercion and rape, increases in number of partners in the context of low refusal and relational assertiveness were associated with increases in verbal sexual coercion and rape. Findings suggest sexual assertiveness is related to fewer experiences of sexual coercion.     

“Hookups”: Characteristics and correlates of college students' spontaneous and anonymous sexual experiences

This study focused on a specific risky practice common among contemporary college students: the hookup. Hookups are defined as a sexual encounter which may or may not include sexual intercourse, usually occurring on only one occasion between two people who are strangers or brief acquaintances. The aim of this study was to determine the relative importance of a variety of social and psychological predictors in understanding differences among undergraduate students who had never hooked up, those who had hooked up without sexual intercourse, and those who had hooked up with sexual intercourse. Analyses revealed that, as predicted, social, individual, and relational psychological variables helped to explain the variance among college students' varied hookup experiences. By examining the full range of sexual involvement characteristic of the casual sexual phenomenon of hooking up within a multivariate model, we were able to achieve a more differentiated understanding of college students' casual sexual experimentation.     

Reciprocal relationships among alcohol use, risk perception, and sexual victimization: a prospective analysis

OBJECTIVE: The authors' purpose in this study was to assess longitudinally the relationships among alcohol use, risk perception, and sexual victimization. PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred and seventy-two women from 2 midsized universities made up the sample. METHODS: Participants filled out questionnaires regarding history of sexual victimization, alcohol use, and perceived personal risk for sexual assault in the following 2 months. The authors then reassessed participants at 2 follow-up periods. RESULTS: The pattern of results suggested that that the relationship between alcohol use and sexual victimization was complex and that alcohol use may moderate the relation between history of victimization and revictimization for women with sexual assault histories. In particular, results indicated an increase in risk for sexual revictimization with increases in alcohol use for women with a history of sexual victimization. The data did not, however, support a reciprocal relationship between sexual assault and drinking (eg, in that a sexual victimization during one time period did not predict drinking behaviors in subsequent time periods). CONCLUSIONS: These results underscore the importance of both alcohol and sexual assault programming on college campuses.     

Contributions of Child Sexual Abuse,Self-Blame,Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms,and Alcohol Use to Women’s Risk for Forcible and Substance-Facilitated Sexual Assault

Child sexual abuse and adult sexual assault have been linked to increased self-blame, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and alcohol use. The current study aims to examine (a) whether these constructs explain women’s risk for later adult sexual assault and revictimization, (b) whether such factors differentially confer risk for specific types of adult sexual assault (i.e., substance-facilitated and forcible), and (c) if self-blame confers risk indirectly through other risk factors. Multiple types of self-blame, posttraumatic stress, and alcohol use were examined among 929 female college students as serial mediators of the relationship between child sexual abuse and adult sexual assault and as risk factors for sexual revictimization among child sexual abuse survivors. In the model predicting risk for substance-facilitated adult sexual assault, child sexual abuse indirectly predicted greater risk for substance-facilitated adult sexual assault mediated through two separate paths: global blame-to-posttraumatic-stress and global blame-to-alcohol use. In the model predicting risk for forcible adult sexual assault, child sexual abuse directly predicted greater risk for forcible adult sexual assault, and this relation was mediated by the global blame-to-posttraumatic-stress path. Among child sexual abuse survivors, child sexual abuse specific characterological and behavioral self-blame directly predicted greater risk for forcible and substance-facilitated revictimization, but the pathways were not mediated by posttraumatic stress or alcohol use. Results emphasize the importance of assessing different types of self-blame in predicting posttraumatic stress symptoms as well as examining risk for sexual victimization and revictimization. Findings did not support hypotheses that increased posttraumatic stress would predict increased alcohol use but did indicate that heightened self-blame is consistently associated with heightened posttraumatic stress and that heightened global self-blame predicts increased alcohol use. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.     

Prevalence of Sexual Aggression Victimization and Perpetration in a Sample of Female and Male College Students in Turkey

In Turkey, there is a shortage of studies on the prevalence of sexual aggression among young adults. The present study examined sexual aggression victimization and perpetration since the age of 15 in a convenience sample of N = 1,376 college students (886 women) from four public universities in Ankara, Turkey. Prevalence rates for different coercive strategies, victim-perpetrator constellations, and sexual acts were measured with a Turkish version of the Sexual Aggression and Victimization Scale (SAV-S). Overall, 77.6% of women and 65.5% of men reported at least one instance of sexual aggression victimization, and 28.9% of men and 14.2% of women reported at least one instance of sexual aggression perpetration. Prevalence rates of sexual aggression victimization and perpetration were highest for current or former partners, followed by acquaintances/friends and strangers. Alcohol was involved in a substantial proportion of the reported incidents. The findings are the first to provide systematic evidence on sexual aggression perpetration and victimization among college students in Turkey, including both women and men.     

Strangers,Acquaintances, and Victims: Victimization and Concern About Crime Among Women

Women report greater concerns about the danger posed by strangers despite greater victimization by acquaintances. Using a survey of Seattle residents, this article investigates one understudied dimension of this seeming incongruity: the actual effect of victimization by a stranger or acquaintance on concerns about crime. The results suggest different patterns for different crimes: relationship to the offender does not matter for burglaries while acquaintance sexual assaults and stranger nonsexual assaults, respectively, hold the largest associations with concerns. Implications are discussed for research on fear of crime, acquaintance victimizations, and perceptions of neighborhoods.     

Conceptualizing the "wantedness" of women's consensual and nonconsensual sexual experiences: implications for how women label their experiences with rape

Sex is often conceptualized either as wanted and consensual or as unwanted and nonconsensual, reflecting an implicit model of wanting that is unidimensional and dichotomous and that conflates wanting and consenting. This study had three objectives: developing a multidimensional model for conceptualizing the wantedness of a sexual act, using this model to compare women's experiences with rape and consensual sex, and assessing whether wantedness is related to rape acknowledgement. Participants were college women who described their experiences with rape (n = 77) or consensual sexual intercourse (n = 87). Results supported a multidimensional model of sexual wanting and a wanting-consenting distinction. Compared with acknowledged rape victims, unacknowledged rape victims reported wanting the sexual intercourse more, despite not having consented.     

The Characteristics of Child Sexual Abuse in the School Environment in Turkey

School may represent a protective factor, boosting the mental health of the student body, while also representing a risk factor that heightens the potential for mental health problems. The present study aims to identify the individual and familial characteristics associated with the incidents of child sexual abuse (CSA) in Turkey’s school environment. The incidents involving school-related CSA constituted 5.6% (N = 125) of 2,238 cases. The following was discovered: an adult committed the majority (64%) of CSA in the school environment; most adult perpetrators were teachers (62.5%). This study determined that the perpetrators manipulated the victims via methods that included physical abuse (11.2%), threats (19.2%), tricks/deception (15.2%), and taking photographs/videos with sexual content (3.2%); and CSA incidents involved intercourse (15.2%); and almost three-quarter of the victims of CSA in the school environment reported the incident late. This study indicates that peer perpetrators abuse younger victims and a greater proportion of male victims relative to adult perpetrators. In light of these findings, school security must be improved, especially in public schools, and trainings aimed at preventing bullying and sexual abuse (SA) should be given to all school staff, students, and parents.     

Conceptualizing the “Wantedness” of Women's Consensual and Nonconsensual Sexual Experiences: Implications for How Women Label Their Experiences With Rape

Sex is often conceptualized either as wanted and consensual or as unwanted and nonconsensual, reflecting an implicit model of wanting that is unidimensional and dichotomous and that conflates wanting and consenting. This study has three objectives: developing a multidimensional model for conceptualizing the wantedness of a sexual act, using this model to compare women's experiences with rape and consensual sex, and assessing whether wantedness is related to rape acknowledgment. Participants were college women who described their experiences with rape (n = 77) or consensual sexual intercourse (n = 87). Results supported a multidimensional model of sexual wanting and a wanting—consenting distinction. Compared with acknowledged rape victims, unacknowledged rape victims reported wanting the sexual intercourse more despite not having consented.     

Coerced Sexual Experiences Among Adolescent Substance Abusers: A Potential Pathway to Increased Vulnerability to HIV Exposure

This study describes the forced sexual experiences, serious internalizing problems, risky sexual behavior, and alcohol-related correlates of risky sexual behavior of 120 substance abusing adolescents and young adults (87 men, 33 women; mean age = 17.2 years) undergoing treatment. Prior coerced sexual experiences were associated with suicidal thoughts and attempts, higher levels of risky sexual behaviors, avoidance motives for drinking, and sexual decision-making conducive to risky sexual behavior. Sexual coercion was associated with patterns of sexual behavior and alcohol use that potentially increase vulnerability to HIV exposure. Social workers can play a number of significant roles in addressing ongoing psychological distress associated with sexual coercion among these predominantly female adolescents. Therefore, effective social work practice should enhance treatment effectiveness and reduce risk for a range of maladaptive outcomes including exposure to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and revictimization.     

SEX-ROLE ATTITUDE CHANGE AND REPORTING OF RAPE VICTIMIZATION, 1973–1985

This article examines the relationship between sex-role attitude change and female victims' reports of rape incidents to police in an analysis of time-series data from national attitude surveys of college freshmen and adults, and from annual victimization surveys. Declining support for traditional sex-role attitudes among both college women and men is strongly related to an increase in the proportion of rapes by nonstranger assailants that were reported to police from 1973 to 1985. However, victims' reports of rapes by strangers are more closely related to offenders' use of weapons during sexual assaults. These findings and other evidence against alternative explanations suggest that the cultural bases for "rape myths" have eroded during the 1970s and 1980s, and that broader definitions of rape have contributed to increased reporting of certain forms of sexual assault to police.     

An analysis of empirical estimates of sexual aggression victimization and perpetration

Estimates of prevalence for several categories of sexual coercion, including rape and attempted rape, were statistically aggregated across 120 studies, involving over 100,000 subjects. According to the data, almost 13% of women and over 3% of men have been raped, and almost 5% of men claim to have perpetrated rape. In contrast, about 25% of women and men claim to have been sexually coerced and to have perpetrated sexual coercion. In general, the mediating variables examined--population type, decade, date of publication, and type of operationalization--were not consistently related to rates of victimization or perpetration. Nevertheless, the extensive variation among study estimates strongly suggests the possibility of systematic sources of variation that have yet to be identified. Further analyses are called for to disentangle such sources.     

Impact of Perpetrator Type on Attributions of Mother Fault in Child Sexual Abuse

Blaming nonoffending mothers for child sexual abuse has substantial negative consequences for both the mother and child victim. Although perpetrator type has been shown to influence how much blame and responsibility is placed on nonoffending mothers in child sexual abuse cases, research to date has focused primarily on perpetrators who are strangers to the child or the child’s biological father, ignoring the effect of other father-figure perpetrators. The current study examined how differences in perpetrator’s relationship to the mother impacted blame, responsibility, cause, and prevention as separate constructs. One hundred and eight participants from an online community sample were randomly assigned to read a vignette describing a child sexual abuse situation with a female victim and one of two perpetrators: the victim’s biological father or the mother’s boyfriend. Participants assigned significantly higher levels of fault for CSA to the mother when the perpetrator was the mother’s boyfriend. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Childhood sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy, and partnering with adult men: exploring the relationship

Although the mechanism by which early victimization, specifically sexual abuse, increases the risk of adolescent pregnancy is unclear, a relationship between previous victimization and adolescent pregnancy has been demonstrated. While partnering with an older man may initially offer the means necessary to escape a neglectful or violent family of origin, this protection be accompanied by an imbalance of power and control. Both adolescent mothers partnered with adult men and adolescent mothers partnered with male peers reported sexual abuse perpetrated by family members, family friends, strangers, and peers. Policies developed to protect young people from victimization, including mandatory reporting and statutory rape laws, should be evaluated for their consistent application to all children, regardless of age, race, gender, or pregnancy status.     

Characteristics of precollege sexual violence victimization and associations with sexual violence revictimization during college

Abstract

Objective: To examine the prevalence and characteristics of precollege sexual victimization (SV) experiences and associations with revictimization and recent substance use behaviors among a sample of college students who reported precollege SV. Participants: A sub-sample of 931 college students who reported precollege SV at baseline data collection for an ongoing multi-site clinical trial. Methods: Data were collected via electronic surveys between September 2015 and March 2017. Measures included precollege and during college SV, recent substance use, and alcohol-related harm reduction behaviors. Results: Precollege SV characteristics associated with revictimization included: Nonpenile penetration (aOR: 1.51, 95%CI: 1.04–2.19); pressured sex (aOR: 1.46, 95%CI: 1.06–2.01); and stranger assault (aOR: 2.03, 95%CI: 1.22–3.40). Past 30-day binge drinking was also associated with revictimization (aOR: 1.86, 95%CI: 1.36–2.54). Conclusions: The relationship between precollege SV and alcohol, especially binge drinking, may require a more integrated approach to preventing subsequent revictimization.