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Obsessive Relational Intrusion and Sexual Coercion Victimization

NCJ Number
175847
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: January 1999 Pages: 3-20
Author(s)
B H Spitzberg; J Rhea
Date Published
1999
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article examines links between obsessive relational intrusion and sexual coercion victimization.
Abstract
Sexual coercion represents the continuum of processes by which persons are induced into sexual activity against their will, including rape and psychological pressure techniques, such as continual arguments and threats to break off the relationship. Another form of intrusion on a person's privacy and autonomy rights is obsessive relational intrusion (ORI) and stalking. ORI involves activities ranging from constant calling or requesting a date to breaking and entering and surreptitious observation; when ORI becomes threatening, it constitutes stalking. A total of 360 college students (185 females, 178 males) were asked to rate the extent to which they had experienced any 1 of 23 clusters of ORI activities, to focus on the worst relationship in which such behaviors were experienced, and indicate the extent to which that same person had engaged in any of 36 sexually coercive activities. ORI and sexual coercion tended to co-occur in relationships. Both were unique and relatively equivalent predictors of psychological symptoms. The article discusses implications for developing more predictive models of the factors sustaining intrusive relationships. Table, notes, references