Two studies investigated the effects of information related to rape myths on Spanish college students' perceptions of sexual assault. In Study 1, 92 participants read a vignette about a nonconsensual sexual encounter and rated whether it was a sexual assault and how much the woman was to blame. In the scenario, the man either used physical force…

Using a sample of 2,838 students from a Southwestern university in the United States, the authors examine the effect of respondent's gender, the adult's gender, the age gap between the adult and teen, and the adult's authority, on students' perceptions of vignettes describing adult-teen sexual relationships. Specifically, the authors investigate…

Sexual revictimization is frequent among victims of child sexual abuse. Several variables, such as sexual experience, substance abuse, and sexual assertiveness, have been proposed to explain the link between child sexual abuse and adolescent and adult sexual victimization, although they have typically been tested separately. The main objective of…

HIV prevention efforts promote the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV and other STDs. Thus, a woman's agency to practice healthy sexual behaviors necessarily involves negotiation with another person. This poses unique challenges for women who have limited power in relationships. The current study explores how the experience of intimate…

Male prison rape and sexual assaults remains a serious and sensitive issue in many countries. Human rights groups claim that sexual assaults among male prisoners have reached pandemic proportions and need to be stopped. Researchers for many years have studied the causes of male sexual assault in prison and offered numerous recommendations on its…

Perpetrating sexual coercion and rape can be conceptualized as a form of sexual risk taking. In this study, the authors evaluated the relationship between sexual aggression and other risky sexual behaviors (e.g., intercourse without a condom) using an online convenience sample of 1,240 heterosexual men. Sexually aggressive men engaged in more…

Past theory and empirical research have consistently associated a number of risk factors with sexual assault perpetration. This study extends past research by considering if the tactics which perpetrators use to obtain sex are associated with these risk factors or with characteristics of the sexual assault. Audio computer-assisted self-interviews…

Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the authors examined prospective associations of attitudes, norms, and control with sexual aggression (SA) perpetration 1 year later among male college students. Data were collected from 652 males via confidential, self-report surveys at the end of their 1st and 2nd years in college. Results…

A sample of 521 college men completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and an expanded version of the Sexual Experiences Survey to examine whether variation in the Big Five personality traits in a normal, college population provides any insight into the nature of sexual assault and rape perpetrators. Rape perpetrators reported lower levels of…

Although bestiality is an infrequent form of animal cruelty, the possibility of identifying a potential link between these acts and later interpersonal violence is an area of research that deserves further exploration. In a replication of the Hensley, Tallichet, and Singer study and based on survey data from male inmates at a medium- and…

This study investigated values, ambivalent sexism, religiosity, religious differences, gender, and attitudes toward rape victims as predictors of rape myths in a sample of Lebanese students (N = 300). Values of self-transcendence and conservation, gender, hostile sexism, and attitudes toward rape victims emerged as significant predictors of rape…

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has several deleterious effects on health and well-being, including increased risk for rape in adulthood. Such revictimization experiences are linked to negative mental health outcomes. The vast majority of literature on prevalence and impact of sexual revictimization has focused on heterosexual women. In an effort to…

The study of verbal sexual coercion in heterosexual relationships is controversial because nonphysical coercive tactics are often viewed as socially acceptable. It was hypothesized that, within couples, verbal sexual coercion will occur within a larger context of destructive conflict tactics and diminished relationship quality. Female…

Although male rape is being reported more often than before, the majority of rape victims continue to be women. Rape myths--false beliefs used mainly to shift the blame of rape from perpetrators to victims--are also prevalent in today's society and in many ways contribute toward the pervasiveness of rape. Despite this, there has been limited…

Limited data from low-income countries are available on the continuum of coercive experiences, the contexts in which they occur, and how adolescent women perceive and respond to coercion. This article presents results from focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with pregnant and never pregnant sexually active female adolescents, aged 15…