Mapping an agenda for the study of youth sexual aggression in Europe: assessment, principles of good practice, and the multilevel analysis of risk factors

ABSTRACT

Sexual aggression is a serious threat to young people's sexual health in Europe, but establishing the exact scale of the problem has been hampered by a variety of conceptual and methodological problems. This article presents a framework for studying youth sexual aggression that addresses both prevalence and risk factors of victimisation and perpetration. It proposes a research tool to comprehensively assess the perpetration of, and victimisation by, sexual aggression that captures different coercive strategies, sexual acts, victim–perpetrator relations, and gender constellations. The instrument is rooted in a clear conceptual definition of sexual aggression and was pilot-tested in 10 countries of the European Union (EU). Furthermore, a list of good practice criteria is proposed to promote the quality and comparability of research on youth sexual aggression in Europe. A multilevel approach combining individual-level and country-level predictors of sexual aggression is outlined and illustrated with data from the pilot study in 10 countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual aggression
• sexual victimisation
• youth
• measurement
• risk factors
• Europe

Acknowledgement

The research reported in this paper was conducted as part of the project “Y-SAV” (Youth Sexual Aggression and Victimization) (http://www.rutgers.international/programmes/y-sav).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the European Agency for Health and Consumers [grant number A/101082].