NCJ Number
144697
Journal
Journal of Research in Personality Volume: 26 Dated: (1992) Pages: 398- 406
Date Published
1992
Length
9 pages
Annotation
A scale to assess attitudes toward sexual abuse is introduced, and its reliability and validity in a study of 318 university students, 106 males and 212 females, are described.
Abstract
Questionnaires completed by university students requested information on demographics, history of childhood sexual abuse, number of sex partners in the last year, frequency of having read or looked at pornography in the last year, self-reported hypothetical likelihood of sexually abusing a child, and acceptance of interpersonal violence. The mean age of subjects was 23.4 years; 80.4 percent were single and 13.6 were married or living together, and 34.3 percent were white, 21.7 percent black, 20.8 percent Hispanic, and 16.9 percent Asian. Attitudes supportive of sexual contact with children were associated with variables previously linked to sexual interest in children: male gender, use of pornography, greater number of sex partners, and greater endorsement of a scale measuring acceptance of sexual aggression against women. Such attitudes predicted the self-reported interest of both male and female unviersity students in having sex with a child, given the absence of detection or punishment. The findings suggest the potential importance of socially transmitted attitudes in the etiology of sexually abusive behavior. An appendix contains the Attitudes Toward Sexual Abuse Scale. 27 references and 2 tables