Women's sexual aggression against men: prevalence and predictors
Sexual aggression researchers have been concerned almost exclusively with men's use of coercive strategies against women (Frieze, 2000). This focus reflects the reality that men are responsible for the vast majority of sexual assaults. An additional reason lies in the fact that legal definitions of rape and sexual assault were restricted for a long time to male perpetrators and female victims. Thus, from a legal point of view, sexual aggression was by definition an assault by a man on a woman. Changes in the law in favor of gender-neutral descriptions of victims and perpetrators were slow to be implemented and are still not ubiquitous (Allgeier & Lamping, 1998). In Germany, the penal code was changed in 1997 to remove the restriction of sexual victimization to female victims of extramarital sexual assault and allow both women and men to be acknowledged as victims of sexual violence, both within and outside marital relationships.
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Apart from these reasons specific to sexual aggression, the relative neglect of women's use of sexual aggression reflects a general tendency in psychological research to focus on aggressive behavior as a male phenomenon (Krahe, 2001). This, in turn, is due to the preoccupation with physical aggression, which seems, indeed, to be more widespread among men than among women (Eagly & Steffen, 1986; Hyde, 1984). However, if other forms of aggressive behavior are considered, such as verbal aggression, indirect aggression (e.g., spreading rumors), or relational aggression (e.g., exclusion), it becomes clear that girls and women engage in these forms of behavior to a substantial degree (e.g., Bjorkvist, Osterman, & Lagerspetz, 1994; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995). Moreover, gender differences in aggression were shown to disappear in laboratory settings or even to be reversed if normative constraints against aggression were weakened, for example, through de-individuation or prior frustration (Bettencourt & Miller, 1996; Lightdale & Prentice, 1994).
Since the late 1980s, the prevalence, antecedents, and consequences of women's sexual aggression against men have been explored in a small number of studies (cf. Anderson & Struckman-Johnson, 1998, for the most comprehensive collection of papers so far). The present study was designed to contribute to this emerging database by exploring the prevalence of women's sexual aggression among adolescents and young adults in Germany. In an attempt to overcome the restriction of previous research to samples of college students (cf. Spitzberg, 1999), participants were recruited from diverse educational backgrounds. Furthermore, we sought to provide evidence for potential predictors of sexual aggression. As Frieze (2000) noted, cultural norms are likely to play an important part in explaining gender differences or similarities with regard to aggressive behavior. Because the majority of available data come from the United States, an exploration of women's sexual aggression in other cultural contexts is an important addition to the literature. By analyzing the prevalence and predictors of women's sexual aggression in a sample of German women and relating the findings to previous U.S. evidence, our research may help to establish the generalizability of the evidence on women's sexual aggression across different countries.
For the purposes of the present investigation, sexual aggression is defined as any form of behavior directed toward the goal of making another person engage in sexual contact with the actor against the target person's will. This definition accommodates different aggressive strategies, such as verbal pressure or physical threat, as well as different forms of sexual contact. The term "sexual violence" is reserved for those forms of sexual aggression that involve the threat or use of physical force.
In an early study of sexual victimization of men by women, Sarrel and Masters (1982) presented 11 cases that documented that men may be made to show sexual responses (i.e., erections, ejaculations) against their will. Indeed, such sexual reactions can be triggered not only by sexual stimulation but also by intense feelings of fear or anger. Thus, against commonsense wisdom, there is evidence that it is possible to coerce an unwilling man into sexual activity in general and into penile-vaginal intercourse in particular.
Studies differ in terms of their focus on the prevalence versus incidence of women's sexual aggression. In prevalence studies, researchers ask if a woman has ever shown (a particular form of) sexual aggression toward a man (e.g., Hogben, Byrne, & Hamburger, 1996). In contrast, in incidence studies researchers ask for sexual aggression that occurred during a specified period of time, usually the last 12 months prior to the survey (e.g., Larimer, Lydum, Anderson, & Turner, 1999).
Concerning the prevalence of women's sexual aggression, the available literature shows wide variations in the number of women who report sexually aggressive behavior (cf. Byers & O'Sullivan, 1998, for a review). These variations are due, in large part, to differences in the way in which sexual aggression has been defined and measured. Some researchers restricted their questions to sexual aggression toward dating partners (e.g., Struckman-Johnson, 1988), whereas others included male targets beyond dating relationships (e.g., Anderson, 1996). Some asked for sexual aggression toward a male partner (Shea, 1998), others did not refer explicitly to the target person's gender (Larimer et al., 1999; O'Sullivan, Byers, & Finkelman, 1998). Overall prevalence rates reported in different studies are also difficult to compare because they reflect different levels of inclusiveness. For example, some studies include the misuse of authority or the administration of alcohol, whereas others are restricted to physical aggression. Therefore, the following summary of pertinent evidence on women's sexual aggression against male targets is meant to delineate the boundaries of the problem rather than to provide a solid picture of the extent to which women behave in a sexually aggressive manner toward men.
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