Understanding Concentrations of Sexual Violence and Abuse: A New Theory

Abstract

Sexual violence is unevenly distributed, with concentrations reported in some contexts and not others, on global, national, and local levels. To advance understanding of why concentrations develop in some settings and not others, existing theory and research is explored and critiqued, identifying a need for new theory generation. Building on existing knowledge, a new theory of contextual activation is proposed, explaining the social and contextual factors associated with the development of sexual violence and abuse concentrations, through the activation at scale of routine causal mechanisms. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for enhanced prevention and next steps in testing the utility of this new theory.