Beyond Traditional Definitions of Assault: Expanding Our Focus to Include Sexually Coercive Experiences

• NCJ Number: 217309
• Journal: Journal of Family Violence Volume: 21 Issue: 8 Dated: November 2006 Pages: 477-486
• Author(s): Jennifer L. Broach; Patricia A. Petretic
• Date Published: November 2006
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study compared the trauma symptoms of women who reported experiencing coerced consensual sex, women who reported being raped (legal definition) as an adult, women who reported both childhood sexual abuse and rape as an adult, women who reported only childhood sexual abuse, and women who reported no incidents of the aforementioned types of sexual victimization.

Abstract

The study found that the women who reported being coerced into consensual sexual intercourse had trauma symptom elevations equal to those of the adult women who had been raped as traditionally defined. The coerced-sexual-intercourse group scored significantly higher than the nonvictim group on 7 of 10 clinical subscales of the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI). Although verbal or emotional coercion as a means of obtaining consensual intercourse is rarely equated with the force that traditionally defines rape, this study's findings indicate that the emotional and interpersonal consequences may be similar. The authors suggest that this may be due to the self-blame and low self-esteem engendered by acquiescence to the unwanted sexual demands. The women who had experienced both rape as an adult and childhood sexual abuse scored the highest on the TSI. A surprising finding was that the women who had experienced childhood sexual abuse but no rape or coerced consensual sex did not have significantly higher TSI scores than the nonvictim group. Possible reasons for this finding are offered. Study participants were 300 undergraduate college women. Of these women, 8.7 percent reported having been coerced into consensual intercourse; 21 percent reported being raped as an adult; 11.7 percent reported only childhood sexual abuse; 6 percent reported both rape and childhood sexual abuse; and 52.7 percent reported none of the aforementioned sexual victimization experiences. All of the women were administered the TSI. 8 tables and 14 references