The Effect of Victim Attitudes and Behaviors on Sexual Assault Victimization Severity: An Examination of University Women

Abstract

The current study investigates a number of theoretically relevant victim characteristics to determine their impact on sexual assault victimization severity. Ordinary least squares regression analysis of survey responses from a sample of 204 university women indicated significant relationships between many of the variables of interest and increases in victimization severity. In particular, risk-taking behavior, delayed victim response strategies to sexual risk, increased number of lifetime sexual partners, and more frequent exposure to pornographic media significantly correlated with increasingly more severe forms of sexual assault. Future research directions and policy implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• danger cue recognition
• pornography consumption
• rape
• sexual assault
• sexual experiences survey
• victimization severity

I would like to thank the editor and two reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Notes

†p < .10, *p < .05.

Social science and education classes were selected for the current study based on availability and convenience. Student participation was voluntarily solicited during scheduled class times, and students were provided with information about where the survey administration would take place. Students were also offered extra course credit for their participation and an alternative assignment option if they chose not to participate. Those students who opted to participate met the research team during the scheduled administration time and completed the survey.

Information on the university population was derived from the “Enrollment and Persistence” data available through the Common Data Set at the Office of Institutional Research at this particular university. Enrollment and Persistence data are available for multiple years in an Excel file. Files were accessed on August 12, 2009, at http://www.ir.wsu.edu/inter.asp?id=1&ns=home&tn=datamain&sf=&sd=

Data from files accessed on August 12, 2009, at http://www.ir.wsu.edu/inter.asp?id=1&ns=home&tn=datamain&sf=&sd=

It is important to note that participants who responded affirmatively to having experienced victimization were asked to report the specifics surrounding their relationship to the perpetrator (e.g., stranger, acquaintance, boyfriend/girlfriend). Frequencies indicated that all of those participants reporting violation incidents had been victimized by a known party.

The TESR measures a participant's adherence to an egalitarian gender ideology. The further away from zero a participant scores on the TESR, the less egalitarian—and thus more traditional—his or her gender ideology.

The scenario was slightly altered to accommodate the particulars of the current research. More specifically, Messman-Moore and Brown (2006) presented participants with two separate vignettes—one representing a stranger rape scenario and one representing an acquaintance rape scenario. The current research used a slightly modified version of the acquaintance rape scenario that described a social event that took place at a fraternity.

To address concerns surrounding the potential for issues of multicollinearity, this study examined diagnostics for the variables included in the analysis. Tolerances ranged from .515 to .909, and variance inflation factors ranged from 1.101 to 2.247, indicating that multicollinearity was not a concern in the present study (Hill and Adkins 2003).

Supplemental analyses included respondent age as a fourth control variable. The results did not differ significantly from those presented here. In addition, multicollinearity problems emerged between age and other theoretically relevant variables, precluding its use in the current analysis (Belsley, Kuh, and Welsch 1980; Hill and Adkins 2003).