Sexual Coercion Flashcards
Sexual assault
includes a variety of nonconsensual sexual experiences ranging from unwanted touching to forced oral, anal, or vaginal intercourse and sexual violence causing serious physical injury or disfigurement to the victim
There is no consent if the complainant is drunk or unconscious, if the complainant shows by their
actions that they are not in agreement, or if the complainant consents to engage in sexual
activity and then changes their mind. Children under age 16 cannot be considered to have
consented to sexual activity with an adult as this is considered child sexual abuse
.
Statistics
3.4 percent of the women and 1.5 percent of the
men reported that they had experienced sexual assault in the previous 12 months
- most were males
- most were people that the victims knew
- 15–24 years have the highest rate of assault
- What about university students specifically? 10.7%
had experienced sexual touching without their consent, 3.6% nonconsensual attempted sexual penetration, and 2.0% percent nonconsensual sexual penetration. - victims were more likely to be females
- The rate of reported sexual assault has been decreasing
- Individuals with disabilities are at greater risk of experiencing sexual assault
Sexual Assault of Women by
Acquaintances
Sexual assault by someone who is known to the victim, often called date rape
is more common then rape from strangers (87% vs 13%)
- most common to be causal acquaintaces and second would be intimate partners
US 14- to 21-year-olds found that 3.9 percent of the girls and 1.6 percent of the boys said that their partner had
made them have sex
date-rape drugs
There arethree major types: Rohypnol, GHB, and ketamine. Numerous cases have been reported of
men who slipped the drug into a woman’s drink and then sexually assaulted her
The drug causes drowsiness or sleep, and the man
sexually assaults the woman while she is incapacitated. The drug also causes the woman not to remember the event the next day
rape culture
refer to deeply entrenched cultural attitudes about
gender and sexuality that shape people’s attitudes about rape
Rape culture is supported by rape myths, which are false beliefs about rape.
Examples include the belief that the victim precipitated the rape
Partner Sexual Assault of Women
- women who were assaulted ( 51%) were partners of the victims
- man who batters his female partner is also likely to force her to have sex
The Impact of Sexual Assault on
Women
women who have experienced sexual assault are
more likely to show several types of psychological distress, including anxiety, depression, suicide ideation and attempts, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
A number of factors are associated with worse psychological outcomes:
- whether the woman has experienced sexual violence previously (i.e., this is a revictimization),
- the severity of the violence (more severe violence is associated with worse outcomes)
- the reactions of others when the woman discloses the assault
psychotherapeutic treatments for PTSD are available and they are successful in treating sexual assault survivors
post-traumatic growth
that is, positive life changes and psychological development following exposure to trauma
Causes of Sexual Assault against Women
- Psychopathology of sex offenders: that sexual assault is an act committed by a psychologically disturbed man.
-
Feminist:
- sexual assault as the product of
gender-role socialization in our culture, which reinforces and legitimizes male aggression.
- complex links between sex and power.
- the eroticization of violence in our society. -
Social disorganization: Sociologists believe that crime rates, including sexual assault rates,
increase after disruption to the social organization of a community. Under such conditions the community cannot enforce its norms against crime. (ex: war)
Research indicates that a number of factors contribute to sexual
assault
- Cultural values: the more hostility that men from a culture expressed toward women on questionnaires, the higher the rate of women reporting being sexually coerced
- Sexual script: scripts support sexual assault when they convey the message that the man is supposed to be oversexed and be the sexual “aggressor”
- **Early family influences ** young men who are sexual aggressors are more likely to have been sexually
abused themselves in childhood - The peer group: men who had abusive friends were more likely to have used sexual aggression
- Characteristics of the situation: Sexual assault is more likely to occur in secluded places or at parties at which excessive alcohol is used or social disorganization situations
- Miscommunication men may interpret a woman’s friendly or affectionate behaviour or sexy clothing as carrying a sexual message that she did not intend
- Sex and power motives
- masculinity norms and men’s attitudes : men who have more hypermasculine attitudes are more likely to have a history of sexual aggression
effects of alcohol on the perpetrator.
Men who are intoxicated are more likely to commit a sexual assault than men who are not intoxicated.
- Pharmacological effects: the actual effects of the drug on the body and behaviour - Alcohol impairs higher cognitive functions such as complex decision-making, planning, and response inhibition. For a man who is predisposed to commit sexual assault, alcohol can turn the predisposition into actual behaviour.
- psychological effects: People believe that drinking alcohol will make them more sociable and sexually uninhibited
effects of alcohol on victims
- Alcohol consumption leads to a decline in cognitive
functioning such as decision-making. Alcohol also leads to a reduction in anxiety, so that awoman may miss signs of danger in her environment. And alcohol consumption may lead women to be less effective in resisting an assault if one occurs - Individuals who are consuming alcohol are perceived as being more sexually interested than those who are not drinking
men who commit sexual assault tend to have the following
characteristics:
- They endorse a number of beliefs that support sexual assault.
- They are more likely to have had brain injuries as a child, which may be related to the next deficit.
- They are characterized by poor inhibition and self-regulation.
- They lack empathy
- They tend to be part of a peer group that approves of forced sex and pressures members to have sex with many different women
Sexual Assault against Men
men who have experienced sexual coercion are higher when the data are based on university and community samples than when they are based on police reports
4.3 percent of the men reported sexual touching without
their consent, 1.0 percent reported nonconsensual attempted penetration, and 0.5 percent reported nonconsensual penetration.
male victims tend to be blamed more harshly for their
victimization than female victims and female perpetrators blamed more leniently for their behaviour than male perpetrators
great majority of male victims of forced intercourse are sexually assaulted by men, not women
Sexual Assault in Prison
Sexual assault in prison is a particularly clear example of the way in which sexual assault is an expression of power and aggression; prisoners—most of whom would identify as heterosexual—use it as a means of establishing a dominance hierarchy.
Preventing Sexual Assault
- Avoid hazardous situations.
- Communicate your limits clearly.
- Be assertive.
- Trust your instincts.
- Respond physically.
we need to combat the cultural stereotype that men
are always interested in sex
The programs to avoid sexual assult generally are based on one of several strategies
-
Awareness-based programs aim to raise people’s awareness of the prevalence of sexual
assault and thereby create community change. - Empathy-based programs seek to increase the audience’s understanding of the consequences for victims, thereby increasing empathy for them.
-
Social norms-based programs encourage individuals to question the gender-role norms that
support violence against women. - **Skills-based programs **teach people, especially women, skills that will decrease their risk of
being the objects of sexual violence (e.g., avoid excessive drinking). - Bystander intervention programs encourage people to intervene if they see a situation that may become violent or behaviours that reinforce social norms that support violence
Child Sexual Abuse
the sexual exploitation of children, including sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual
touching, and sexual exploitation
Iinternet sexual solicitation of youth - a sexual predator meets a child or adolescent online, gains the youth’s confidence, and arranges a face-to-face meeting
sextortion, which refers to threats to expose
sexual images with the goal of coercing victims to provide additional pictures or engage in sex (common for to tennager be victs)
Patterns of Child Sexual Abuse
- 22 percent of women and 8 percent of men had suffered someform of sexual abuse prior to age 18
- girls are usually targeted more then boys
- most cases are never reported
- most perpetrators are men
- most cases is between 14-15 years old
- most are done by people the victem knows
Intrafamilial Sexual Abuse
sexual abuse of children by an adult family member (releted or nonreleted)
Impact on the Victim
Children who have experienced child sexual abuse are more likely to experience a variety of symptoms, including anxiety, depression, behaviour problems, health complaints and thougths of suscide,social difficulties PTSD
many of these affects persist to adulthood and have difficulty with their sex lifes later on
The Offenders
- child molesters tend to abuse more then one child
- They are more likely to have experienced sexual and nonsexual abuse as children
- most likely to had bad social skills
- pedophiles have poorer cognitive functioning than
controls and are more likely than controls
Treatment of Child Sex Offenders
A major review of both drug and
psychotherapy interventions with sex offenders concluded that there is no strong evidence of
the success of either kind of treatment
Preventing Child Sexual Abuse
Canada have implemented sexual abuse prevention programs
Sexual Harrasment
A. Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment or academic advancement
B. Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for academic or employment decisions affecting that individual, or
C. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work
or academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or educational environment.
quid pro quo(sexual coersion)
compliance with the sexual advances has some direct link to employment or educational status or opportunity, or to receipt of a public service.
I’ll do something for you if you do something for me”).
Sexual annoyance
related behaviour that creates a hostile, intimidating work environment so that the person cannot work effectively, such as constant lewd innuendoes, verbal intimidation, or practical jokes that cause embarrassmen
Sexual Harassment at Work
43 percent of women and 20 percent of men reported that they had experienced some form of sexual harassment at work
However, 20 percent reported the incidents to their employer.
There is evidence linking the experience of sexual harassment to depression, anxiety, and PTSD
Fiske and Glick (1995) argue that there are four types of
harassment of women by men
-
earnest harassment, the man is truly motivated
by a desire for sexual intimacy, but he will not take no for an answer and persists with unwelcome sexual advances -
hostile harassment, the man’s motivation is domination of the woman, often because he perceives
her as being in competition with him in the workplace. - paternalistic-ambivalent harassment, the man is motivated by a desire for sexual intimacy but also by a paternalistic desire to be like a father to the woman. This type of harassment may be particularly insidious because the man thinks of himself as acting benevolently toward the woman
4.competitive-ambivalent harassment, mixes real sexual attraction and a stereotype of women as sexy with the man’s hostile desire to dominate the woman
Sexual Harassment in Education
- Of the teachers who were harassers, 90 percent were men.
- The psychological consequences were more severe when the harassment was done by a teacher than by a peer.
- The two most common sexually harassing behaviours were homophobic name-calling and sexual comments, jokes, gestures, and looks
- Indigenous students experienced significantly higher levels of sexual harassment
factors contribute to sexual harassment in academia
- Perceived institutional tolerance for sexual harassment
- Environments where men outnumber women (male-dominated environments)
-
Hierarchical power structure within the organizationWith such an organizational structure,
workers depend heavily on those higher in the organization, so workers are unwilling to
report harassment because of fear of retaliation from powerful others. - Compliance with Title IX regulations that is only symbolic.
- Uninformed leadership in the organizatio
Sex between Healthcare Professionals and
Clients or Patients
it is a situation of unequal power, in which the more powerful person, the healthcare professional, imposes sexual activity on the less powerful person, the patient or client
The situation is regarded as particularly serious in psychotherapy because clients have opened themselves up emotionally to the therapist and therefore are extremely vulnerable
How do professionals accused of sexual misconduct respond?
* ** Deniers** refuse to acknowledge that the sexual activities occured
* Rationalizers tend to avoid responsibility for their behaviour by minimizing its impact.
* ** repentants** take full responsibility for their action, are sincerely sorry that it occurred
