Content area
Full Text
Sexual violence against women is a major concern to researchers and policy makers, as well as to the general public. This study uses a sample of more than 2,000 college students to investigate the extent to which exposure to harsh parenting practices and sexually explicit materials contributes to perpetration and victimization. Findings indicate that frequent corporal punishment in the family of origin combined with consumption of pornographic materials increased the probability that males reported engaging in coercive sexual practices. For females, both frequent corporal punishment and exposure to paternal hostility combined with consumption of pornographic materials were associated with higher levels of reported sexual victimization. These results provide increased understanding of the impact of pornography use among a nonclinical sample, as well as the consequences of experiencing harsh corporal punishment in one's family of origin, on the sexual victimization of females.
Keywords: corporal punishment; sexually explicit material; intimate partner violence; sexual violence
Sexual violence toward women has received much attention from scholars and is a matter of concern to clinicians, policy makers, as well as the general population; and there is a continued need to investigate the etiology of such behavior. Past studies indicate that college women are at higher risk than other populations for date rape and other forms of sexual violence (DeKeseredy & Schwartz, 1998; Wolitzky- Taylor et al., 2008). Prevalence studies suggest that roughly half of female college students report having experienced sexual coercion (Forbes & Adams-Curtis, 2001), while 10%-20% have experienced forced intercourse (Brener, McMahon, Warren, & Douglas, 1999; Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000; Resnick, Kilpatrick, Dansky, Saunders, & Best, 1993). In contrast, 15%-25% of college males admit to having engaged in some type of sexual aggression (Forbes & Adams-Curtis, 2001), while 5%-15% of college males acknowledge having engaged in forced intercourse (Ouimette & Riggs, 1998). Studies indicate that sexual coercion committed by dating partners exists on a continuum, whereby perpetrators usually begin with less intimidating strategies and gradually escalate the level of force when these initial tactics fail (Felson, 2002; Simons, Burt, & Simons, 2008). Approximately half of college women report having engaged in unwanted sexual intercourse (O'Sullivan & Allgeier, 1998; Sprecher, Hatfield, Cortese, Potapova, & Levitskaya, 1994). Although these acts are sometimes technically consensual, women often report that...