Sexual Orientation and Sexual Coercion Perpetration Among College Students

Résumé du livre

Sexual coercion, or pursuing sexual activity with a nonconsenting individual, involves a variety of tactics both verbal and physical. This phenomenon is rarely studied among sexual minority populations due to the widely held assumption that perpetration is a heterosexual male behavior. This assumption is not supported, as sexual aggression also occurs in same-sex encounters between men and women (e.g., Krahé & Berger, 2013). Sexual coercion is highly prevalent on college campuses (Krebs, Lindquist, Warner, Fisher & Martin, 2007). The current study examined whether empirically supported risk factors for heterosexual individuals also predict sexual coercion perpetration in individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual. In addition, predictors possibly unique to sexual minority members were examined. A total of 180 college students (67 heterosexual men, 29 heterosexual women, 43 gay/bisexual men, and 41 lesbian/bisexual women) were included in the current study. Approximately one-third of the participants reported engaging in at least one sexually coercive behavior. There were no significant differences between groups in coercion perpetration. Psychopathic traits appear to be a universal predictor of sexually coercive behavior in this sample as they were associated with coercion by both men and women regardless of sexual orientation. Sexual orientation did not moderate the relationship between any predictors and coercive behavior. This finding indicates that some risk factors known to predict coercion in heterosexual males are applicable to other populations. Limitation, implications, and directions for future research are discussed.