Longitudinal Study of Violence Against Women: Victimization and Perpetration Among College Students in a State-Supported University in the United States, 1990-1995

The purpose of this study was to investigate longitudinally
 the developmental antecedents of physical and sexual violence against
 young women, using a theoretically based multicausal model that
 included characteristics related to the victim, the perpetrator, and
 the environment. The researchers used a classic longitudinal design,
 replicated over two cohorts (those born in 1972 and 1973), each
 assessed first when 18 years old, and again when 19, 20, 21, and 22
 years old. The first survey (Part 1, Female Data) collected
 information on the respondent's experiences of sexual assault from age
 14 to the present (age 18). Other questions focused on the kind of
 person the respondent thought she was, how much of an influence
 religion had on the way she chose to spend each day, her dating
 behavior during high school, the number of times the respondent had
 used behavior such as discussing issues relatively calmly, arguing,
 sulking, stomping out of the room, or threatening to hit, with a
 romantic partner during high school, and how frequently romantic
 partners used these types of behavior with the respondent. Other items
 elicited information on the number of women the respondent knew who
 had been sexually victimized, whether men forced them to engage in
 sexual activities, the nature of the respondent's sexual experience
 from the time she was 14 to the present, the respondent's age when
 each experience occurred, if the respondent or the other person was
 using drugs or alcohol when it happened, if the respondent was
 injured, and whom the respondent told about the
 experience. Information was collected on sexual abuse prior to the age
 of 14 as well. The respondent was also asked to describe how often her
 parents or stepparents had administered physical blows (i.e., hitting,
 kicking, throwing someone down), whether someone had fondled her in a
 sexual way, whether a male had attempted intercourse with the
 respondent, the relationship between the respondent and the
 perpetrator, the respondent's age when the experience occurred, who
 the other person was, who initiated the date or paid for the food,
 drinks, or tickets, whether the respondent or the other person was
 using drugs or alcohol, the respondent's opinions about men and women
 in America (i.e., if the respondent agreed or disagreed that
 chivalrous gestures toward women on the part of men should be
 encouraged), whether the respondent had engaged in sexual intercourse
 when she did not want to because a male threatened or used some degree
 of physical force (twisting her arm, holding her down, etc.), and the
 respondent's drug and alcohol use. The subsequent surveys contained
 measures of sexual assault during each year of college (i.e., since
 the previous survey). Questions asked in subsequent surveys were
 similar to those in the first survey, and the responses are all
 included in Part 1. Questions posed to males (Part 2, Male Data)
 included the number of women the respondent had sexual intercourse
 with, how often the respondent heard talk that speculated how a
 particular woman would be in bed, reasons the respondent engaged in
 sexual activity, number of times the respondent engaged in sexual
 intercourse when a woman didn't want to, and questions similar to
 those in Part 1 with the respondent as the perpetrator. Demographic
 information in Part 1 and Part 2 describes the female or the male
 respondent's education, race, religious preference, sexual
orientation, and marital or relationship status.

Tags: battered-women, college-students, colleges, domestic-violence, personality-assessment, sexual-assault, sexual-behavior, victimization, violence
Organization: Department of Justice