Sexual assault perpetration in college men: Support for an integrative model of sexual assault and acquaintance rape

Abstract

The present study is an exploratory investigation of the interrelationships between variables that have demonstrated to be related to perpetration of sexual aggression, as well as the collective ability of these variables to predict sexually aggressive behavior. The methodology is such that participants' history of past perpetration and their beliefs, attitudes, personality, childhood sexual victimization experiences, and socialization experiences were evaluated at pretest. Participants, sexually aggressive behavior was then assessed during two follow-up periods, at 3 months and 7 months after pretest. Approximately one-third (31.2%) of participants had a history of perpetrating sexually aggressive acts after the age of 14 and prior to entering the study, 17.4% perpetrated during the 3-month follow-up period, and 12.4% perpetrated over the course of the 7-month follow-up period. The results of logistic regression analyses indicated that history of perpetration was related to perceived use of token resistance by a partner in the past, perpetration during the 3-month follow-up was predicted by history of perpetration and fraternity membership, and perpetration during the 7-month follow-up was predicted by perpetration during the 3-month follow-up period. Additionally, perpetration during the course of the study was assessed, and results indicated that history of perpetration was a significant predictor. However, several variables that have previously been demonstrated in the literature to be related to the perpetration of sexual assault were not significant in the regression analyses. The lack of findings may be related to the improved prospective methodology of the current study, as compared to previous retrospective studies. Other possible explanations for these findings may be related to limitations of the measures used, and intercorrelations between the variables proposed in the literature to be related to sexual assault perpetration. Overall, this study may have significant implications with regard to both future research in sexual assault perpetration and sexual assault prevention programming with men. Specifically, the results indicate that men with a history of perpetrating rape may constitute a distinctive group among perpetrators of sexual assault. Consequently, models of sexual assault perpetration may differ with regard to perpetration status. Finally, implications for future directions in sexual assault programming are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).