NCJ Number
118359
Date Published
1989
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This research empirically compared three alternative theoretical models regarding the causes of sexual aggression: the single-factor model, which suggests that sexual aggression results from a single factor; the additive model, which posits multiple factors combining in an additive manner; and the interactive model, which asserts that multiple factors interact to produce sexual aggression.
Abstract
In studying self-reported naturalistic sexual aggression, six predictors were used in the study: sexual responsiveness to rape, dominance, hostility toward women, attitudes facilitating aggression, antisocial personality characteristics/psychoticism, and sexual experience. A total of 155 males participated in the first phase of the research. They completed various scales, including all the predictors except the sexual arousal measures, as well as the dependent measure of sexual aggression. The second phase consisted of the assessment of sexual arousal in response to rape portrayals and to depictions of consenting sex. Subjects were recruited from various sources. In the simple correlation analyses, all the predictors except psychoticism were significantly related to naturalistic aggression. The predictors did not, on the whole, provide redundant information, in that a combination of them was superior to any individual ones for predicting levels of sexual aggressiveness. The data were more consistent with the interactive than with the additive model of combining the predictors. 3 tables, 1 figure, 5 notes, 71 references.