Male Sexual Victimization: Examining Variation in the Probability of Weapon Use and Victim Injury

Abstract

The sexual victimization of adult males remains an understudied subject within criminology. Prior research has generally been restricted to descriptive analysis of small clinical samples and inmate populations. Using general strain theory (GST), this study examines the simultaneous influence of community- and incident-level factors on the likelihood of weapon use and victim injury in cases of adult male sexual victimization. This study applies hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM) to 2,155 cases of sexual victimization of adult males nested within 113 U.S. cities. Community-level data are procured from the 2011-2015 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year summary file and incident-level data are taken from cases of sexual violence contained in the 2011-2015 National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Findings demonstrate moderate support for GST as a framework through which to examine male sexual victimization, as community levels of disadvantage/violence and ethnic heterogeneity, as well as offender gender, race, intoxication, and weapon use each exhibit statistically significant relations with crime severity. This study finds that community and situational context are each important in predicting weapon use and victim injury, demonstrating the need to further explore male sexual victimization from a multilevel perspective.