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.     

Consensual Victim–Perpetrator Intercourse after Nonconsensual Sex: The Impact of Prior Relationship

Some female victims of nonconsensual sex subsequently have consensual sexual intercourse with the perpetrator and are more likely to do so if intercourse occurred during the nonconsensual sex than if it did not. Some evolutionary psychologists have postulated that there is something significant about nonconsensual intercourse that causes women to subsequently have a sexual relationship with the perpetrator (e.g., risk of pregnancy). In this study, we investigated a parsimonious explanation that has previously been overlooked: Intercourse is more likely during nonconsensual sex when the victim and perpetrator have previously had a sexual relationship; thus, subsequent consensual intercourse may simply be a continuation of that prior relationship. A sample of 945 women completed an Internet-based survey, of whom 41% had experienced nonconsensual sex since age 14. As expected, victims who had intercourse with perpetrators prior to the nonconsensual sex event were significantly more likely than other victims to experience nonconsensual intercourse and to engage in subsequent consensual intercourse with the perpetrator. When considering only the small subsample of victims who never had a prior romantic or sexual relationship with the perpetrator, the odds of subsequent consensual intercourse were still significantly greater following nonconsensual sex with intercourse versus without intercourse.     

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.     

The alcohol contexts of consent,wanted sex,sexual pleasure,and sexual assault: Results from a probability survey of undergraduate students

Objective: To examine, in a probability sample of undergraduate students, characteristics of students’ most recent sexual experiences (including alcohol use) as well as their experiences with nonconsensual sex. Participants: In January and February 2015, 22,046 students were invited to participate in an anonymous, cross-sectional, Internet-based survey; 7,032 surveys were completed (31.9%). Methods: Measures included background characteristics (age, gender, sexual orientation), most recent sexual event items (sexual pleasure, wantedness, alcohol use), and experiences with nonconsensual sex (since college and lifetime). Results: Respondents reporting sober consensual sex were more likely to report higher levels of sexual pleasure and wantedness. Nonconsensual oral, vaginal, or anal penetration occurring during college were reported by 15.8% of women and 7.7% of men. Students more often told friends, partners, or family members and rarely disclosed to university faculty or police. Conclusions: Implications for campus policy and health education are addressed.     

Barriers to reporting sexual assault for women and men: perspectives of college students

The authors asked college students to rate the importance of a list of barriers to reporting rape and sexual assault among male and female victims. The authors' findings indicate that barriers prevalent 30 years ago, prior to efforts by the rape reform movement, continue to be considered important among college men and women. The barriers rated as the most important were (1) shame, guilt, embarrassment, not wanting friends and family to know; (2) concerns about confidentiality; and (3) fear of not being believed. Both genders perceived a fear of being judged as gay as an important barrier for male victims of sexual assault or rape and fear of retaliation by the perpetrator to be an important barrier for female victims.     

Black Women's experiences of sexual assault and disclosure: Insights from the margins

Black women experience higher rates of sexual assault or rape than their White counterparts and the U.S. Department of Justice finds only one Black woman out of 15 will report her rape. This article reviews the literature on the ways in which Black women's sexual assault disclosure experiences are framed by their unique social space at the margins of society due to systemic oppression based on race, gender, and class (Settles, Pratt‐Hyatt, and Buchanan). We situate this review around three major areas of marginalization: (a) the delegitimization of Black women as victims of rape, (b) the social construction of Black women as inordinately strong, and (c) the sanctioning of intraracial sexual assault disclosure. Despite a call for action by Angela Davis in 1985, Black women's unique and varied intersectional experiences around sexual assault and disclosure are understudied. We implore scholars to continue this important research and conclude this article with insights on future research and activism.     

Alcohol's effects on women's risk detection in a date-rape vignette

Researchers have established that alcohol is a risk factor for date rape for both victims and perpetrators. OBJECTIVE: The authors tried to experimentally address the link between alcohol consumption and women's risk detection abilities in a risky sexual vignette. PARTICIPANTS: The authors recruited 42 women from undergraduate classrooms at a large midwestern university and randomly assigned them to drink an alcoholic (.04 blood alcohol content) or a placebo beverage. METHODS: Participants completed self-report inventories and listened to a date-rape audiotaped vignette, which began with consensual sexual behavior and culminated in date rape, and the authors asked them to determine if and when the man should refrain from making further sexual advances. RESULTS: Student's t tests and Pearson r correlations showed that women who consumed alcohol and exhibited high levels of rape myth acceptance showed a significant decrease in risk recognition (p = .000 and .001, respectively). CONCLUSION: These findings highlight the significance of even small amounts of alcohol on behavior and cognition in women who are self-reported experienced drinkers.     

Dimensions of pornography

In this article, definitions and dimensions of pornography are analyzed. College students (N =201) reported the degree to which they believed items in a series of statements reflecting sexual images were pornographic. Factor analysis is used to explore the multidimensional nature of pornographic imagery and produce item indices of perceived pornographic content. The analysis delineates five dimensions of pornography: consensual heterosexual and lesbian sexual images, consensual male homosexual images, skin magazines, rape images, and art. These five dimensions of pornography are interpreted as reflecting dimensions of exploitation, degradation, and objectification. It is concluded that future research on pornography should consistently implement measures of multiple dimensions of pornography. This will allow future research findings on pornography to be aggregated and, thereby, better inform social policy.     

Childhood sexual experiences and adult health sequelae among gay and bisexual men: defining childhood sexual abuse

Gay and bisexual men carry the burden of HIV infections in the United States and have high rates of childhood sexual abuse that predict HIV and other health outcomes. This study examined differential effects of forced, consensual, and no childhood sexual experiences (CSE) on health outcomes among a probability sample of adult men who have sex with men (MSM). The forced sex group had the highest levels of psychological distress, substance use, and HIV risk. There were no differences in rates of depression and suicidal ideation between the consensual- and no-sex groups. The consensual- and forced-sex groups had higher rates of substance use and transmission risk than the no-sex group. The forced-sex group, however, had significantly higher rates of frequent drug use and high-risk sex than the consensual group. Findings suggest that forced CSEs result in a higher-risk profile than consensual or no childhood sexual experiences, the kind of risk pattern differs between forced and consensual childhood sexual experiences, and the underlying mechanisms that maintain risk patterns may vary. It is important to clarify risk patterns and mechanisms that maintain them differentially for forced and consensual sex groups so that interventions may be tailored to the specific trajectories related to each experience.     

Alcohol and substance use disorders as predictors of child to adult sexual revictimization in a sample of community women

Alcohol- and substance-related diagnoses were examined as factors in child to adult sexual revictimization. Three hundred community women completed interviews and self-report instruments to obtain information regarding victimization and to diagnose substance use disorders (alcohol and substance abuse/dependence). Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors were more likely than nonvictims to meet criteria for both substance use disorders and to report rape (e.g., unwanted intercourse due to threat or use of force, or due to the inability to consent due to the respondent's alcohol or drug use) and coerced intercourse (e.g., unwanted intercourse due to verbal coercion or misuse of authority by the perpetrator) by acquaintances, strangers, and husbands. In general, both CSA and substance use disorders were predictive of adult sexual victimization, but there were no significant interactions between these factors. Overall, substance use disorders were related to rape for all women; this relationship was not unique to CSA survivors. Alcohol- and substance-related diagnoses predicted rape by all three types of perpetrators, but CSA was predictive of rape only by acquaintances and strangers and not husbands. In contrast, CSA predicted coerced intercourse by all three perpetrators, while alcohol- and substance-related diagnoses predicted coerced intercourse by acquaintances and strangers, but not husbands. Results highlight the need to continue the study of revictimization of CSA survivors, including examination of both rape and sexually coercive experiences by different types of perpetrators. Findings support continued research of substance use disorders as risk factors for sexual victimization among all women.     

“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.     

Prevalence,Characteristics, and Associations of Sexual Abuse with Sociodemographics and Consensual Sex in a Population-Based Sample of Swedish Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to investigate lifetime prevalence and characteristics of self-reported child sexual abuse and associations between child sexual abuse, gender, sociodemographic data, and consensual sexual experiences. A questionnaire was completed by 4,339 Swedish high school seniors. Three categories of child sexual abuse were studied: noncontact, contact without penetration, and penetrating child sexual abuse. Penetrating child sexual abuse was correlated with the most severe abuse characteristics. Students reporting child sexual abuse, especially penetrating child sexual abuse, were more likely to not be living with both parents, to have parents with lower socioeconomic status, and to have their first consensual intercourse at a young age. The study showed that distinct categories of child sexual abuse must be employed since each category shows a specific pattern concerning abuse characteristics, sociodemographics, and consensual sex.     

Factors that predict how women label their own childhood sexual abuse

Despite the psychological impact of child sexual abuse, many victims do not acknowledge that their experiences were "abuse". This study sought to identify factors that predict how women label their own experiences of childhood sexual abuse. This cross-sectional study was conducted in a family medicine clinic with adult female patients. Subjects completed structured interviews about their childhood environment and their sexual abuse history. Logistic regression analysis showed that labeling of abuse was dependent upon intercourse (beta = 7.43, p = .006), the frequency of abuse by the first perpetrator (beta = 5.08, p = .024), and paternal overprotection (beta = 6.69, p = .010). Findings suggest that the severity of abusive acts is most important and an over-protective father may enhance the victim's acknowledgment that sexual touching is abusive.     

Unwanted sexual contact on campus: a comparison of women's and men's experiences

While sexual victimization continues to be a problem on college campuses, recent attention has been drawn to understanding gender differences in victimization rates and consequences. To date, these studies remain relatively few in number. The current study surveyed 651 male and female undergraduate students about unwanted sexual experiences during 1 academic year. Comparison of men and women revealed expected differences in incidence rates, with women reporting higher rates of unwanted contact. Within the subsample of reported victims, however, there was gender similarity in terms of the context of unwanted sexual experiences. Analyses also revealed the negative consequences of these experiences for both men and women and low rates of disclosure regardless of gender. Across the full sample of students surveyed, there were interesting gender differences in knowledge of campus support services, with women more likely to have attended a prevention program and to have indicated greater knowledge of rape crisis services.     

Intimate sexual victimization among women with protective orders: types and associations of physical and mental health problems

Intimate sexual violence was examined among a sample of women who had recently obtained protective orders against male partners using three groups: no sexual victimization (n = 368), sexual insistence (n = 114), and threatened and/or forced sex (n = 117). Differences in childhood sexual abuse as well as types of partner psychological abuse, stalking, and severe physical violence experiences were found across the groups. Multivariate analysis showed that women with no sexual victimization had significantly fewer mental health problems than women who had experienced sexual insistence and women who had been threatened or forced to have sex. Findings from this study underscore the importance of health, mental health, and criminal justice professionals assessing for a range of sexually abusive acts when working with victims of partner violence.     

The Wyatt Sex History Questionnaire

The complexities of developing appropriate formats for obtaining sexual histories that include women's consensual and coercive sexual experiences are discussed in this paper. The Wyatt Sex History Questionnaire (WSHQ), used with a multi-ethnic sample of women, is described to obtain incidents of non-consensual sexual abuse. The advantages of using a face-to-face format to obtain incidents of child sexual victimization are highlighted. In order to assess a range of effects of women's consensual sexual functioning, items of the WSHQ, administered in telephone and face-to-face interviews, through self report measures and indirect questioning using randomized responses, were compared for their effectiveness in obtaining consensual sexual experiences. The advantages of using face-to-face interview techniques with multi-ethnic community sample to assess the affects of non-consensual sexual experiences in childhood on women's consensual sexual practices is discussed.