Factors Related to Coercive Sexual Behavior in a Nonclinical Sample of Males

Abstract

The sexual coercion literature has suggested numerous factors related to aggressive sexual behavior. The present investigation explores a number of these factors in a community sample. Data collected from 189 volunteers from the community included measures of sexual arousal, social perception, personality variables, attitudes toward women, and self-reported likelihood to rape. Multiple-regression analyses were used to determine the relative association of these factors to coercive sexual behavior. The present findings suggested that social perception, Extraversion and Neuroticism from the Eysenck Personality Inventory, sexual arousal, and self-reported likelihood to rape all contributed to the multiple regression. Rape Myth Acceptance, although not contributing significantly to the multiple regression, did show a significant zero-order correlation with coercive sexual behavior. Additional analyses were performed in an attempt to replicate an earlier predictive study by Malamuth and Check (1983) that found self-reported sexual arousal to be predicted by a combination of self-reported likelihood to rape, Psychoticism and Neuroticism from the Eysenck Personality Inventory, power motivation, and sexual experience. In the present study, both self-reported sexual arousal and penile tumescence measures were significantly related to attitudinal measures, social perception measures, and self-reported likelihood to rape. Limitations of the present study and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The Effect of Young Adult Literature on Adolescents' Rape Myth Acceptance

“…Until the 1970s, explanations of rape were dominated by a psychopathology model. Under the psychopathology model, rape is viewed as a symptom of a psychiatric disorder (Murphy, Coleman, & Haynes, 1986). Therefore, rapists are viewed as deviants who do not represent what society views as "normal"…”

A review of cognitive factors in the etiology of rape

“…In addition, Pollard (1994) cited 10 more studies, which found Burts' RMA, AIV, and ASB scales to be associated with self-reported LR, the SES, or both. An exception is the study of Murphy, Coleman, and Haynes (1986) with a community sample, in which scores on the RMA, ASB, and SRS scales were found to be unrelated to self-rated LR.…”

“…Murphy et al (1986) tested this hypothesis in a community sample. Participants were shown videotaped interactions in which men initiated social interactions with women.…”

“…M. Malamuth and Brown (1994) tested these three hypotheses in a single study using the stimulus material of Murphy et al (1986). They did not use the seduction discrimination index or the hostility discrimination index, but they did ask their participants to indicate the extent to which they viewed the women in each of the four heterosocial interaction scenarios as hostile, assertive, friendly or seductive.…”

“…Therefore, it remains unclear how the other previously discussed cognitive factors interact with noncognitive factors in the etiology of rape. Because Murphy et al (1986) and N. M. Malamuth and Brown (1994) both found that misperceptions of women's communications predict rape proclivity better than the Burt attitudes, it is likely that this factor will account for a considerable percentage of variance in multivariate models.…”