TY - GEN
A1 - Schuster, Isabell
A1 - Tomaszewska, Paulina
A1 - Krahé, Barbara
T1 - Changing cognitive risk factors for sexual aggression
BT - Risky sexual scripts, low sexual self-esteem, perception of pornography, and acceptance of sexual coercion
T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2 - Sexual aggression is a problem among college students worldwide, and a growing body of research has identified variables associated with an increased risk of victimization and perpetration. Among these, sexuality-related cognitions, such as sexual scripts, sexual self-esteem, perceived realism of pornography, and acceptance of sexual coercion, play a major role. The current experimental study aimed to show that these cognitive risk factors of sexual aggression victimization and perpetration are amenable to change, which is a critical condition for evidence-based intervention efforts. College students in Germany (N = 324) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a treatment group designed to change participants' sexual scripts for consensual sex with regard to the role of alcohol consumption, casual sex, and ambiguous communication of sexual intentions as risk factors for sexual aggression (EG1), a treatment group designed to promote sexual self-esteem, challenge the perceived realism of pornography, and reduce the acceptance of sexual coercion (EG2), and a non-treatment control group (CG). Baseline (T1), post-experimental (T2), and follow-up (T3) measures were taken across an eight-week period. Sexual scripts contained fewer risk factors for sexual aggression in EG1 than in EG2 and CG at T3. Sexual self-esteem was enhanced in EG2 at T2 relative to the other two groups. Acceptance of sexual coercion was lower in EG2 than in EG1 and CG at T2 and T3. No effect was found for perceived realism of pornography. The findings are discussed in terms of targeting cognitive risk factors as a basis for intervention programs.
T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 859
KW - sexual aggression
KW - sexual scripts
KW - sexual self-esteem
KW - sexual coercion
KW - college students
Y1 - 2020
U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-549072
SN - 1866-8364
IS - 3-4
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Schuster, Isabell
A1 - Tomaszewska, Paulina
A1 - Krahé, Barbara
T1 - Changing cognitive risk factors for sexual aggression
BT - Risky sexual scripts, low sexual self-esteem, perception of pornography, and acceptance of sexual coercion
JF - Journal of interpersonal violence
N2 - Sexual aggression is a problem among college students worldwide, and a growing body of research has identified variables associated with an increased risk of victimization and perpetration. Among these, sexuality-related cognitions, such as sexual scripts, sexual self-esteem, perceived realism of pornography, and acceptance of sexual coercion, play a major role. The current experimental study aimed to show that these cognitive risk factors of sexual aggression victimization and perpetration are amenable to change, which is a critical condition for evidence-based intervention efforts. College students in Germany (N = 324) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a treatment group designed to change participants' sexual scripts for consensual sex with regard to the role of alcohol consumption, casual sex, and ambiguous communication of sexual intentions as risk factors for sexual aggression (EG1), a treatment group designed to promote sexual self-esteem, challenge the perceived realism of pornography, and reduce the acceptance of sexual coercion (EG2), and a non-treatment control group (CG). Baseline (T1), post-experimental (T2), and follow-up (T3) measures were taken across an eight-week period. Sexual scripts contained fewer risk factors for sexual aggression in EG1 than in EG2 and CG at T3. Sexual self-esteem was enhanced in EG2 at T2 relative to the other two groups. Acceptance of sexual coercion was lower in EG2 than in EG1 and CG at T2 and T3. No effect was found for perceived realism of pornography. The findings are discussed in terms of targeting cognitive risk factors as a basis for intervention programs.
KW - sexual aggression
KW - sexual scripts
KW - sexual self-esteem
KW - sexual coercion
KW - college students
Y1 - 2020
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260520922341
SN - 0886-2605
SN - 1552-6518
VL - 37
IS - 3-4
SP - NP1377
EP - NP1400
PB - Sage Publ.
CY - Thousand Oaks
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Bondü, Rebecca
A1 - Birke, Joseph B.
T1 - Aggression-related sexual fantasies
BT - prevalence rates, sex differences, and links with personality, attitudes, and behavior
JF - The journal of sexual medicine : basic research and clinical studies in male and female sexual function and dysfunction
N2 - Background: Aggression-related sexual fantasies (ASF) are considered an important risk factor for sexual aggression, but empirical knowledge is limited, in part because previous research has been based on predominantly male, North-American college samples, and limited numbers of questions.
Aim: The present study aimed to foster the knowledge about the frequency and correlates of ASF, while including a large sample of women and a broad range of ASF.
Method: A convenience sample of N = 664 participants from Germany including 508 (77%) women and 156 (23%) men with a median age of 25 (21-27) years answered an online questionnaire. Participants were mainly recruited via social networks (online and in person) and were mainly students. We examined the frequencies of (aggression-related) sexual fantasies and their expected factor structure (factors reflecting affective, experimental, masochistic, and aggression-related contents) via exploratory factor analysis. We investigated potential correlates (eg, psychopathic traits, attitudes towards sexual fantasies) as predictors of ASF using multiple regression analyses. Finally, we examined whether ASF would positively predict sexual aggression beyond other pertinent risk factors using multiple regression analysis.
Outcomes: The participants rated the frequency of a broad set of 56 aggression-related and other sexual fantasies, attitudes towards sexual fantasies, the Big Five (ie, broad personality dimensions including neuroticism and extraversion), sexual aggression, and other risk factors for sexual aggression.
Results: All participants reported non-aggression-related sexual fantasies and 77% reported at least one ASF in their lives. Being male, frequent sexual fantasies, psychopathic traits, and negative attitudes towards sexual fantasies predicted more frequent ASF. ASF were the strongest predictor of sexual aggression beyond other risk factors, including general aggression, psychopathic traits, rape myth acceptance, and violent pornography consumption.
Clinical Translation: ASF may be an important risk factor for sexual aggression and should be more strongly considered in prevention and intervention efforts.
Strengths and Limitations: The strengths of the present study include using a large item pool and a large sample with a large proportion of women in order to examine ASF as a predictor of sexual aggression beyond important control variables. Its weaknesses include the reliance on cross-sectional data, that preclude causal inferences, and not continuously distinguishing between consensual and non-consensual acts.
Conclusion: ASF are a frequent phenomenon even in in the general population and among women and show strong associations with sexual aggression. Thus, they require more attention by research on sexual aggression and its prevention.
KW - aggressive sexual fantasies
KW - sexual aggression
KW - psychopathic traits
KW - rape myths acceptance
KW - big five
Y1 - 2021
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2021.06.006
SN - 1743-6095
SN - 1743-6109
VL - 18
IS - 8
SP - 1383
EP - 1397
PB - Oxford University Press
CY - Oxford
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Bondü, Rebecca
A1 - Birke, Joseph
T1 - Links between aggressive sexual fantasies and presumably non-consensual aggressive sexual behavior when controlling for BDSM identity
JF - International journal of conflict and violence
N2 - Recent research provides evidence that aggressive sexual fantasies predict aggressive sexual behavior in the general population. However, sexual fantasies including fantasies about the infliction of pain and humiliation, should be frequent and often consensually acted upon among individuals with sadomasochistic likings. The question arises whether sexual fantasies with aggressive content still predict presumably non-consensual aggressive sexual behavior in individuals with sadomasochistic likings, given that BDSM encounters are generally considered consensual. To investigate this question, we conducted a questionnaire survey of sexual fantasies, as sessing the frequency of seventy sexual fantasies involving non-aggressive, masochistic, and aggressive acts. Our sample (N = 182) contained 99 respondents who self-identified as sadist, masochist, or switcher; 44 reported no such identification. For respondents reporting BDSM identification, we replicated a factor structure for sexual fantasies similar to that previously found in the general population, including three factors reflecting fantasies about increasingly severe aggressive sexual acts. Fantasies about injuring a partner and/or using weapons and fantasies about sexual coercion predicted presumably non-consensual sexual behavior independently of other risk factors for aggressive sexual behavior and irrespective of BDSM identification. Hence, severely aggressive sexual fantasies may predispose to presumably non-consensual sexual behavior in both individuals with and without BDSM identification.
KW - aggressive sexual fantasies
KW - BDSM
KW - sexual aggression
KW - psychopathy
Y1 - 2021
U6 - https://doi.org/10.4119/ijcv-3777
SN - 1864-1385
VL - 14
IS - 1
PB - Inst. for Interdisciplinary Conflict and Violence Research, Univ. of Bielefeld
CY - Bielefeld
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Krahé, Barbara
A1 - Berger, Anja
T1 - Correlates of victim-perpetrator overlap in sexual aggression among men and women
BT - a conceptual replication and extension
JF - Psychology of violence
N2 - Objective: The study replicated and extended a study by Peterson, Beagley, McCallum, and Artime (2019), who studied differences in sexual attitudes and behaviors in men who were both victims and perpetrators of sexual assault, only victims, only perpetrators, or neither. They found a heightened rate of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and some evidence of greater traumatic sexualization in men who were both victims and perpetrators.
Method: Our sample consisted of 2,149 college students (39.6% male) in Germany. We measured sexual aggression perpetration and victimization, CSA, sexual self-esteem, depressive symptoms, risky sexual scripts, and risky sexual behavior.
Results: Perpetration rates were significantly higher among victims than among nonvictims, and the victim-perpetrator group scored highest on CSA. A significant effect of group membership was found on measures of depressive symptoms, risky sexual scripts, and risky sexual behavior in both sex groups, mainly due to differences of the victim-only, perpetrator-only, and victim-perpetrator groups from the nonvictim-nonperpetrator group. The effect on sexual self-esteem was found for women only. Few differences emerged between the victim-only, perpetrator-only, and victim-perpetrator groups. Most associations remained significant when controlling for CSA.
Conclusion: We found a substantial overlap between victimization and perpetration but no evidence for a special vulnerability of the victim-perpetrator group. Instead, experiences of victimization, perpetration, or both were linked to more negative correlates compared with individuals who were neither victims nor perpetrators. The findings need to be interpreted with caution due to the small number of individuals in the perpetrator-only and victim-perpetrator groups.
KW - victim-perpetrator overlap
KW - childhood sexual abuse
KW - sexual aggression
KW - sexual scripts
KW - depressive symptoms
Y1 - 2020
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000282
SN - 2152-0828
SN - 2152-081X
VL - 10
IS - 5
SP - 564
EP - 574
PB - American Psychological Association
CY - Washington
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Schuster, Isabell
A1 - Krahe, Barbara
T1 - Prevalence of Sexual Aggression Victimization and Perpetration in Chile
BT - A Systematic Review
JF - Trauma violence & abuse
N2 - Sexual aggression is a major public health issue worldwide, but most knowledge is derived from studies conducted in North America and Western Europe. Little research has been conducted on the prevalence of sexual aggression in developing countries, including Chile. This article presents the first systematic review of the evidence on the prevalence of sexual aggression victimization and perpetration among women and men in Chile. Furthermore, it reports differences in prevalence rates in relation to victim and perpetrator characteristics and victim–perpetrator relationships. A total of N = 28 studies were identified by a three-stage literature search, including the screening of academic databases, publications of Chilean institutions, and reference lists. A great heterogeneity was found for prevalence rates of sexual victimization, ranging between 1.0% and 51.9% for women and 0.4% and 48.0% for men. Only four studies provided perpetration rates, which varied between 0.8% and 26.8% for men and 0.0% and 16.5% for women. No consistent evidence emerged for differences in victimization rates in relation to victims’ gender, age, and education. Perpetrators were more likely to be persons known to the victim. Conceptual and methodological differences between the studies are discussed as reasons for the great variability in prevalence rates, and recommendations are provided for a more harmonized and gender-inclusive approach for future research on sexual aggression in Chile.
KW - sexual aggression
KW - victimization
KW - perpetration
KW - Chile
KW - review
Y1 - 2017
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838017697307
SN - 1524-8380
SN - 1552-8324
VL - 20
IS - 2
SP - 229
EP - 244
PB - Sage Publ.
CY - Thousand Oaks
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Winzer, Lylla
A1 - Krahé, Barbara
A1 - Guest, Philip Michael
T1 - The Scale of Sexual Aggression in Southeast Asia: A Review
JF - Trauma, violence & abuse
N2 - Southeast Asia is one of the most dynamic regions in the world. It is experiencing rapid socioeconomic change that may influence the level of sexual aggression, but data on the scale of sexual aggression in the region remain sparse. The aim of the present article was to systematically review the findings of studies available in English on the prevalence of self-reported sexual aggression and victimization among women and men above the age of 12 years in the 11 countries of Southeast Asia (Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam). Based on four scientific databases, the search engine Google, Opengrey database, and reference checking, 49 studies were found on sexual victimization. Of those, 32 included only women. Self-reported perpetration was assessed by only three studies and included all-male samples. Prevalence rates varied widely across studies but showed that sexual victimization was widespread among different social groups, irrespective of sex and sexual orientation. Methodological heterogeneity, lack of representativeness of samples, imbalance of information available by country, missing information within studies, and cultural differences hampered the comparability between and within countries. There is a need for operationalizations that specifically address sexual aggression occurring after the age of consent, based on detailed behavioral descriptions of unwanted sexual experiences and allied to a qualitative approach with cultural sensitivity. Data on sexual aggression in conflict settings and in human trafficking are also limited. Recommendations for future research are presented in the discussion.
KW - rape
KW - sexual victimization
KW - sexual aggression
KW - sexual violence
KW - Southeast Asia
Y1 - 2019
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838017725312
SN - 1524-8380
SN - 1552-8324
VL - 20
IS - 5
SP - 595
EP - 612
PB - Sage Publ.
CY - Thousand Oaks
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Schuster, Isabell
A1 - Krahé, Barbara
A1 - Ilabaca Baeza, Paola
A1 - Munoz-Reyes, Jose A.
T1 - Sexual Aggression Victimization and Perpetration among Male and Female College Students in Chile
JF - Frontiers in psychology
N2 - Evidence on the prevalence of sexual aggression among college students is primarily based on studies from Western countries. In Chile, a South American country strongly influenced by the Catholic Church, little research on sexual aggression among college students is available. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the prevalence of sexual aggression victimization and perpetration since the age of 14 (the legal age of consent) in a sample of male and female students aged between 18 and 29 years from five Chilean universities (N = 1135), to consider possible gender differences, and to study the extent to which alcohol was involved in the reported incidents of perpetration and victimization. Sexual aggression victimization and perpetration was measured with a Chilean Spanish version of the Sexual Aggression and Victimization Scale (SAV-S), which includes three coercive strategies (use or threat of physical force, exploitation of an incapacitated state, and verbal pressure), three victim-perpetrator constellations (current or former partners, friends/acquaintances, and strangers), and four sexual acts (sexual touch, attempted sexual intercourse, completed sexual intercourse, and other sexual acts, such as oral sex). Overall, 51.9% of women and 48.0% of men reported at least one incident of sexual victimization, and 26.8% of men and 16.5% of women reported at least one incident of sexual aggression perpetration since the age of 14. For victimization, only few gender differences were found, but significantly more men than women reported sexual aggression perpetration. A large proportion of perpetrators also reported victimization experiences. Regarding victim-perpetrator relationship, sexual aggression victimization and perpetration were more common between persons who knew each other than between strangers. Alcohol use by the perpetrator, victim, or both was involved in many incidents of sexual aggression victimization and perpetration, particularly among strangers. The present data are the first to provide a systematic and detailed picture of sexual aggression among college students in Chile, including victimization and perpetration reports by both men and women and confirming the critical role of alcohol established in past research from Western countries.
KW - sexual aggression
KW - victimization
KW - perpetration
KW - prevalence
KW - coercive strategies
KW - relationship constellations
KW - alcohol
KW - Chile
Y1 - 2016
U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01354
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 7
PB - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY - Lausanne
ER -
TY - GEN
A1 - Tomaszewska, Paulina
A1 - Krahé, Barbara
T1 - Sexual aggression victimization and perpetration among female and male university students in Poland
T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2 - This study examined the prevalence of victimization and perpetration of sexual aggression since age 15 in a convenience sample of 565 Polish university students (356 females). The prevalence of sexual aggression was investigated for both males and females from the perspectives of both victims and perpetrators in relation to three coercive strategies, three different victim–perpetrator relationships, and four types of sexual acts. We also examined the extent to which alcohol was consumed in the context of sexually aggressive incidents. The overall self-reported victimization rate was 34.3% for females and 28.4% for males. The overall perpetration rate was 11.7% for males and 6.5% for females. The gender difference was significant only for perpetration. Prevalence rates of both victimization and perpetration were higher for people known to each other than for strangers. In the majority of victimization and perpetration incidents, alcohol was consumed by one or both parties involved. The findings are discussed in relation to the international evidence and the need for tailored risk prevention and reduction programs.
T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 399
KW - sexual aggression
KW - victimization
KW - perpetration
KW - alcohol
KW - Poland
Y1 - 2018
U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-404807
IS - 399
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Tomaszewska, Paulina
A1 - Krahé, Barbara
T1 - Sexual aggression victimization and perpetration among female and male university students in Poland
JF - Journal of Interpersonal Violence
N2 - This study examined the prevalence of victimization and perpetration of sexual aggression since age 15 in a convenience sample of 565 Polish university students (356 females). The prevalence of sexual aggression was investigated for both males and females from the perspectives of both victims and perpetrators in relation to three coercive strategies, three different victim–perpetrator relationships, and four types of sexual acts. We also examined the extent to which alcohol was consumed in the context of sexually aggressive incidents. The overall self-reported victimization rate was 34.3% for females and 28.4% for males. The overall perpetration rate was 11.7% for males and 6.5% for females. The gender difference was significant only for perpetration. Prevalence rates of both victimization and perpetration were higher for people known to each other than for strangers. In the majority of victimization and perpetration incidents, alcohol was consumed by one or both parties involved. The findings are discussed in relation to the international evidence and the need for tailored risk prevention and reduction programs.
KW - sexual aggression
KW - victimization
KW - perpetration
KW - alcohol
KW - Poland
Y1 - 2015
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260515609583
VL - 33
IS - 4
SP - 571
EP - 594
PB - Sage
CY - Thousand Oaks, Calif.
ER -