Sexual Coercion

Abstract

Sexual coercion is behavior that is not new to society. Whereas rape has been mostly defined as sexual intercourse (anal or vaginal) after an individual has clearly stated that they do not wish to participate in such activity, sexual coercion is not as clearly defined. Sexual coercion is behavior that is constantly being redefined because there are so many situations (workplace, dating, between acquaintances, among adolescents, etc.) where it can occur, and because the situations differ so does the behavior exhibited. This inability to assign an all‐encompassing definition to the behavior is also what makes sexual coercion difficult to pin down with just one standardized definition. Sexual coercion spans many different genres and can occur in any given circumstance. However, it seems that since the late twentieth century sexual coercion has been consistently increasing among adolescents and among college students.