Sexual assault of college students: victimization and perpetration prevalence involving cisgender men, cisgender women and gender minorities

Abstract

Objective To study eight types of sexual assault among cisgender women, cisgender men and gender minority college students, estimating the prevalence of perpetration by persons of particular gender identities. Participants and Methods: 13,685 sexual assault survivors were surveyed. For each type of sexual assault victimization experienced by cisgender women, cisgender men and gender minorities, prevalence estimates assessed the extent of perpetration by persons of each gender identity. Results: Cisgender men were the most prevalent perpetrators of all types of sexual assault against cisgender women and gender minorities. Cisgender women were the most prevalent perpetrators of five types of sexual assault against cisgender men, with cisgender women and cisgender men being similarly likely to perpetrate three types of sexual assault against cisgender men. Conclusions: Cisgender men perpetrate most sexual assaults against cisgender women and gender minority students; cisgender women and cisgender men perpetrate most sexual assaults against cisgender men students.

Keywords:

• College
• gender
• perpetration
• sexual assault
• victimization
• gender minority
• cisgender

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all involved in the 2015 Association of American Universities (AAU) Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct, including the AAU, the AAU survey design team, Westat, the participating universities, and the students who participated in the survey. In addition, we wish to acknowledge the University of North Carolina Gender-Based Violence Research Group that was instrumental in this work.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of the United State. In addition, the Office of Human Ethics Institutional Review Board of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill determined that this secondary data analysis project did not constitute human subjects research as defined under federal regulations.

Data availability statement

The 2015 Association of American Universities (AAU) Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct public use data is available to researchers by contacting the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan (https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/57738).

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.