The factors assailant behaviors, women’s victimization history, alcohol use, positive relationship expectancies, and sexual aggression accounted both uniquely and cumulatively for women’s responding to acquaintance sexual aggression. Assailant actions accounted significantly for variance in participant behavioral responding. The importance of victims’ risk and protective factors were also identified as interventions. A two-pronged approached is recommended for rape avoidance and resistance training programs. It targets factors that impede and promote women’s assertion and it helps women anticipate and respond to assailant actions. This study sought to clarify the roles that assailant’s actions and women’s expectancies, behaviors, and life experiences played in shaping women’s responses. The study first provides an overview of appraisal-based coping as it applies to immediate threat responses, specifically acquaintance sexual aggression. It then reviews factors that are hypothesized to function as risk or protective relative to women’s assertive responding. The study focused on young college women with a total of 202 participants from a west coast university. The study participants had experienced a range of assault outcomes. This was done so that a range of cognitive-affective and behavioral responses women use when faced with a variety of sexually aggressive threats could be examined. Tables and references