Sexual Assault Perpetration by College Men: The Role of Alcohol, Misperception of Sexual Intent, and Sexual Beliefs and Experiences

Abstract

1 99b) to explain one set of pathways through which alcohol and sexual assault are linked. It was hypothesized that the mutual effects of beliefs and experiences with regard to dating, sexuality, and alcohol increase the likelihood that a man would misperceive a female companion's sexual inten tions, and that this misperception would lead to sexual assault. Self-administered, anonymous surveys were conducted with a representative sample of 814 men at a large urban university. Twenty-six percent of these men reported perpetrating sexual assault. The results of structural equation modeling analyses provided support for the model. Suggestions are made for a more dyadic and dynamic mode of research on this problem, as well as for the development of sexual assault prevention and treatment programs for men.Sexual assault occurs at an unconscionably high rate among college students. About a decade ago Koss, Gidycz, and Wisniewski (1987) conducted a national study of 3,187 women and 2,972 men from 32 different colleges selected to represent the higher education enrollment in the United States. Fifty four percent of the women reported experienc ing some level of sexual assault since the age of 14; and 25% of the men reported perpetrating some level of sexual assault. Sexual assault in cludes a range of forced sexual activities including acts which meet the legal definition of rape (e.g., use of force, lack of consent), verbally coerced sexual intercourse, and forced sexual intercourse (kissing, Lisa Thomson Ross is now at the College of Charleston 167 168 ABBEY, McAUSLAN, AND ROSS touching, or stroking).Assault that met the standard legal definition of completed or attempted rape was experienced by 27"o of the women; 8% of the men reported committing such acts. Eighty-four percent of these sexual assaults occurred between people who knew each other (Koss, 1988). questioned college students specifically about sexual as sault that occur on dates. Seventy-eight percent of the women reported being the victims of sexual assault; 57"o of the men reported perpetrating such assaults. Kanin (1985) found that 2b".. of the college men in his sample had forced sexual intercourse on a date since entering college. Although the difference between the reporting rates for women and men is sizable, and the focus of some debate (Koss et al., 1987;Pineau, 1989), it does not alter the fact that sexual assault is a serious problem among college students.Sexual assault has frequently been linked to alcohol consumption. In the national sample described above, 74% of the men and 55" n of the women reported using alcohol prior to the incident (Koss, 1988). Mue hlenhard and Linton (1987) found that alcohol was consumed by 55% of the men and 53% of the women who reported sexual assault-on a date.Although past research consistently documents the frequent co-occur rence of alcohol consumption and sexual assault, a theoretical frame work explaining this relationship is lacking. As is true for any complex human behavior, there are likely to be multiple...

Cross-sectional predictors of sexual assault perpetration in a community sample of single African American and Caucasian men

“…Additional verbal coercion items included a question about pressure induced through swearing, getting angry, or threatening to end the relationship as well as questions about verbally coerced oral and anal sex. Additional rape items assessed sexual intercourse when the woman was incapacitated and unable to give consent and a final question that specifically used the word "rape" [Abbey et al, 1998;Koss and Oros, 1982]. Each question was answered on a 6-point scale with options that ranged from never (0) to five or more times (6).…”

“…Numerous researchers have replicated these basic findings. Depending on the university and exactly how questions were phrased, self-reported rates of sexual assault perpetration have been as high as 61% and rates of attempted or completed rape have been as high as 15% [Abbey et al, 1998[Abbey et al, , 2001Craig et al, 1989;Mills and Granoff, 1992;Muehlenhard and Linton, 1987;Rapaport and Burkhart, 1984;Wheeler et al, 2002].…”

“…Sex for these men is an act of power and dominance, rather than love. Numerous studies with sexual assault perpetrators have found that as compared to nonperpetrators, sexual assault perpetrators have greater hostility toward women, more traditional attitudes toward gender roles and sexual relationships, stronger sexual dominance motives, and are more accepting of using manipulative strategies in their relationships with women [Abbey et al, 1998;Johnson and Knight, 2000;Koss and Dinero, 1988;Malamuth et al, 1991Malamuth et al, , 1995Murnen et al, 2002;Wheeler et al, 2002].…”

“…Greater dating and sexual activity also provide more opportunities to commit sexual assault [Kanin, 1985]. Many researchers have reported that sexual assault perpetrators have consensual sex at an earlier age, have more dating and consensual sex partners, and have more positive attitudes about casual sexual relationships than nonperpetrators [Abbey et al, 1998;Koss and Dinero, 1988;Malamuth et al, 1995Malamuth et al, , 1991Merrill et al, 2001;Senn et al, 2000].…”

Sexual assault and alcohol consumption: what do we know about their relationship and what types of research are still needed?

“…Twenty-five percent of these men reported that they had committed some form of sexual assault since the age of 14. In studies at individual universities and colleges, up to 15% of the men surveyed have indicated that they perpetrated rape and up to 57% indicated that they perpetrated some form of sexual assault (Abbey, McAuslan, & Ross, 1998;Craig, Kalichman, & Follingstad, 1989;Kanin, 1985;Mills & Granoff, 1992;Muehlenhard & Linton, 1987;Rapaport & Burkhart, 1984). More than 80% of these sexual assaults occurred with women these college perpetrators knew; about half occurred on dates.…”