This article focuses on the characteristics of sexually violent men who have not been convicted of a crime. The objective of this study was to test the four key interrelated pillars of the Confluence Model. The first key pillar posits the interaction of Hostile Masculinity and Impersonal Sex as core risk predictors. The second pillar entails a “mediated structure” wherein the impact of more general risk factors is mediated via those specific to aggression against women. The third pillar comprises a single latent factor underlying various types of sexual violence. The fourth pillar expands the core model by including the secondary risk factors of lower empathy, peer support, extreme pornography use, and participation in alcohol parties. An ethnically diverse sample of 1,148 male students from 13 U.S. colleges and universities completed a comprehensive survey that assessed the hypothesized risk factors and self‐reported sexual violence, which included noncontact sexual offenses, contact sexual coercion, and contact sexual aggression. A series of multiple regression analyses were conducted before testing structural equation models. The results supported the integration of the four pillars within a single expanded empirical model that accounted for 49% of the variance of sexual violence. This study yielded data supporting all four key pillars. These findings provide information about non‐redudant risk factors that can be used to develop screening tools, group‐based and individually tailored psychoeducational and treatment interventions.

The recent Supreme Court ruling in U.S. v. Comstock (2010) upheld the constitutionality of The Adam Walsh Act, which provides for civil commitment of child pornography (CP) offenders certified as sexually dangerous, thereby approving litigation of all such prisoners in the federal system. The two studies reported here sought to address the question: What is the likelihood that an individual convicted of child pornography offenses has a prior history of a hands-on sexual offense involving a child or has a high probability of committing such an offense? Our sample consisted of 349 participants: 113 who committed an Internet sexual offense only and no other known or self-reported hands-on sexual offense, 176 child molesters who reported no Internet sexual offense, and 60 child molesters that reported committing an Internet sexual offense. Study 1 yielded two scales, one reflecting Antisocial Behavior (AB) and one reflecting Internet Preoccupation (IP). Those two scales predicted membership in the combined sample of child molesters with a high degree of accuracy (c = 0.75). Study two revealed that all three groups were discrete with respect to AB and IP. By increasing the IP scale by 1 point, the odds of being an IO rather than a CM increased by 86%. The plotted conditional probabilities increased linearly as values on the AB scale increase, from 0.27 when AB = 0 to 0.84 when AB = 13. Our results are discussed in terms of risk discrimination among possessors of child pornography, relevance of risk to the statutory third prong element of serious difficulty, and the policy implications of the findings reported here.

Previous research on differences in character strengths as a result of traumatic cultural events has relied on non-overlapping samples of individuals who completed online questionnaires before and after the event. This study expands on these previous studies by examining differences in self-reports of character strengths before, between, and after two terror attacks on Paris, France, in 2015, and further comparing these differences to contemporaneous differences in two other countries. Completers of the inventory during the same periods from the United States (N = 528,912) and Australia (N = 174,591) served as the comparison groups. After controlling for age and gender, six strengths in the French sample, nine strengths in the Australian sample and seven in the US sample remained significant. A clear discernable pattern did not emerge. Effect sizes were consistently miniscule, which when combined with very large samples may account for finding significance even though within-nation differences are unreliable.

We wish to acknowledge our esteem and admiration for a young attorney, Nicole Pittman, who has invested her heart and soul in promoting the rational care and management of youth with sexual behavior problems.

Research Questions: Rape prevention practice and policy have roots in data from 1985. This study uses 2015 national data to project recent prevalence, assesses whether rates now differ from those of 30 years ago, and disaggregates 2015 prevalence into rape of alcohol incapacitated victims, rapes combining both alcohol and physical tactics, and violent rape. Methods: Cross-sectional analyses were conducted comparing two national samples. The first was collected in 1984-85 (Koss, Gidycz, & Wisniewski, 1987); the second was collected 30 years later in 2014-2015. Both surveys used in-person administration and measurement by the most current version at the time of the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES). Prevalence rates were compared using Bayesian binomial tests. Results: In 2015, 33.4% (1 in 3) of women reported experiencing rape or attempted rape and 12.7% of men reported perpetration (1 in 8). Using Jeffreys' label for effect size of the Bayes binomial (1961), both results are “decisively” greater than expected given the 1985 benchmarks of 27.9% for victimization and 7.7% for perpetration. Victimization when incapacitated characterized approximately 75% of incidents in 2015 up from 50% in 1985. Cautions apply as cross-sectional data does not establish causality and the recent data set involved the revised SES. Conclusions: Across 30 years, neither containment nor reduction of rape was demonstrated and the increasingly prominent association with alcohol was apparent. Among the men who disclosed raping, 9 of 10 incidents were alcohol-involved. Prevention focus might profitably be directed to constraining alcohol environments and policies that facilitate rape of incapacitated persons and on misconduct responses that are proportional to the harm caused to rape victims, thereby raising the perceived risks of perpetration.