This study explores the roles of benevolent sexism (BS), hostile sexism (HS), and gender-role traditionality (GRT) in minimizing rape, blaming the victim, and excusing the rapist. As predicted, hostile sexists minimize the seriousness of the rape in both stranger and date-rape scenarios. In the victim-blame scale, both BS and GRT significantly…

This study examined the co-occurrence of childhood sexual abuse, adult sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and sexual harassment in a predominantly African American sample of 268 female veterans, randomly sampled from an urban Veterans Affairs hospital women's clinic. A combination of hierarchical and iterative cluster analysis was used to…

The authors used qualitative research methods to explore the context and sexual risk behavior associated with sexual intercourse involving multiple males and one female, commonly called "running a train." Participants were 20 adolescent males aged 14 to 22 years who were either perpetrators of dating violence or perceived by teachers to…

Using data from the 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey, this study examined select sociodemographic and psychosocial correlates of weight perceptions and weight control behaviors among Black, Hispanic and White females (n = 6,089). Results showed little difference across ethnic groups for perceptions of body weight with slightly over…

Research has found that approximately half of women who report an experience that meets the legal definition of rape do not label it rape. It has been assumed that labeling the experience as rape is necessary and beneficial for recovery; however, conflicting findings have been reported. In the present study, a longitudinal design was utilized to…

Whether satisfaction or dissatisfaction is experienced is a function of the type of comparisons against which the outcome is evaluated. Something appears good because it seems better than something else. This study examined the consequences of downward comparisons, or worse-world counterfactuals involving evaluations of both the victim and…

The decision whether a woman has consented to sexual intercourse is rarely determined by the woman herself. Often, instead, a woman's consent, and ultimately her sexuality, is determined for her by others--her partner, the community, or the court system. Women in this culture have traditionally had very little power to control their own bodies and…

A number of school-based programs address sexual violence by focusing on adolescents' attitudes about rape or acceptance of rape myths. However, really problems exist in the literature regarding measurement of rape myth acceptance, including issues of reliability and validity. This paper addresses measurement reliability issues and reviews…

This article discusses (a) the relationship between the reemergence of the women's movement in the 1970s and the current field of violence against women; (b) the role voluntary associations and social activism play in shaping social institutions, including the institution of academic scholarship; (c) the need to broaden our definition of violence…

In 2004 South Africa embarked on a mission of reforming its higher education system, merging and incorporating small universities into larger institutions, and renaming all higher education institutions university. The democratic country's universities and technikons, which were incorporated with others and thus no longer exist, will be mentioned…

This study compared the moral development of solo juvenile male sex offenders (n = 20) and juvenile male non-offenders (n = 76), aged 13-19 years, from lower socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. The Moral Orientation Measure (MOM) was used to assess punishment- and victim-based moral orientation in sexual and non-sexual situations. Moral…

Surveys and focus groups were administered to two samples of US university undergraduates to compare sexual aggression prevalence as assessed based on the Power-Assertion model (n = 139) versus the Confluence model (n = 318). Men were more likely to commit all illegal acts, especially conventional rape. Women also committed illegal acts,…

"Speak," by Laurie Halse Anderson, is one of the most powerful young adult novels to come along in the past decade. It has won numerous awards, including the "School Library Journal" award for "Best Book of the Year," and was a National Book Award Finalist. Despite this acclaim, many English teachers are uncomfortable teaching "Speak" in their…

Understanding factors that affect the severity of a juvenile-stranger sexual assault has implications for crime prevention, and potentially, the assessment and treatment of juvenile sex offenders. This study investigated how victim characteristics and the number of suspects affected the use of physical violence and weapons and the occurrence of…