Prevalence of sexual violence.

Abstract

Social problems have been characterized as consisting of social situations involving a substantial number of persons and constituting a threat to social well-being, as defined by the mores of the group, and which must be dealt with in an organized and concerted way (Bossard, 1934). Such a definition suggests that pervasiveness is a primary determinant of whether a phenomenon is considered a social problem. Whereas the pervasiveness of violence against women factored into the passage of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 and its subsequent reauthorization (U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women, n.d.), the pervasiveness of a problem among the populace also factors into the setting of research agendas (e.g., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Injury Research Agenda; National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2002) and the development of prevention priorities (e.g., Healthy People 2010; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001a). This chapter examines the current state of knowledge regarding the pervasiveness of sexual violence against women and children.

Discrepant Responding across Measures of College Students’ Sexual Victimization Experiences: Conceptual Replication and Extension

“…Rape affects approximately 1 in 5 college women (Post, Biroscak, & Barboza, 2011;Muehlenhard, Peterson, Humphreys, & Jozkowski, 2017) and 1 in 6 college men (Anderson, Cahill, & Delahanty, 2018a). However, the exact scope of sexual violence (including rape), is uncertain among less studied populations due, in part, to measurement issues.…”

Exploring Definitions and Prevalence of Verbal Sexual Coercion and Its Relationship to Consent to Unwanted Sex: Implications for Affirmative Consent Standards on College Campuses

“…Despite scholars moving in the direction of attempting to examine broader forms of sexual victimization and perpetration tactics, sexual coercion is understudied [ 56 ], producing definitions and operationalizations of sexual coercion that suffer from lack of consistency and theoretical conundrums [ 38 , 57 , 58 , 59 ]. These issues are partly due to the fact that different types of tactics used by perpetrators to obtain sex with unwilling partners have not been adequately defined or measured [ 59 , 60 , 61 ].…”

Behavioral response to threat (BRTT) as a key behavior for sexual assault risk reduction intervention: A critical review

“…Approximately 11-18% of women in the general population experience rape in their lifetimes, and this rate is higher among women on college campuses (Gross, Winslett, Roberts, & Gohm, 2006;Post, Biroscak, & Barboza, 2011). Most sexual assaults (90% or greater) are committed by someone known to the victim or survivor rather than a stranger (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000).…”