Journal of Sex Research最新文献

The prevalence of sexual assault (SA) among college students (13%) is unacceptable, underreported, and alcohol use by the perpetrator or victim is reported in 50% of SA cases. Bystander intervention (BI) programs, which use prosocial behaviors to prevent or stop a harmful situation from occurring, have been implemented across college campuses to reduce SA. There are several known barriers (e.g. self-intoxication) and facilitators (e.g. peer support) to BI for SA; however, less is known about barriers and facilitators to BI for alcohol-related SA. Alcohol-related SA includes situations in which the perpetrator and/or victim are intoxicated, whereas alcohol-facilitated SA includes situations in which individuals intentionally use alcohol as a perpetration strategy. The current study examined student perspectives of BI for SA opportunities, actions taken in response to opportunities, and barriers and facilitators to action. The team conducted content and deductive thematic analysis of data from focus groups and interviews with diverse undergraduate students (N = 79). Opportunities included perpetrator-focused, victim-focused, and sexual risk opportunities. Actions taken included staying vigilant, monitoring friends, communicating with friends, and removing friends. Barriers included self-intoxication, feeling helpless, peer pressure, not feeling personally responsible, and fearing the consequences of helping. Finally, facilitators included knowing friends' concerning signals and drinking motives, feeling like some intervention strategies are easy, understanding sex-related risks, acknowledging consent and personal boundaries, and feeling personally responsible for friends. Understanding these situations' nuances can help to inform more effective and comprehensive BI programs to reduce SA.

People consume alcohol prior to both consensual and nonconsensual sexual activity. To better inform education and prevention efforts targeting the coalescing of alcohol, sexual consent, and sexual violence, we conducted a scoping review of 57 articles published between 1999 and 2024 that examined the relationship between alcohol use and sexual consent. Most articles were qualitative and investigated how alcohol related to perceptions of consent, internal consent feelings, and external consent communication. Each article's findings were coded to assess how alcohol was related to sexual consent (i.e. the directionality, positive, negative). Our scoping review highlights how alcohol shapes the consent processes beginning in public settings (e.g. pubs, parties), and one's perceptions of drinking behaviors within these settings. In terms of consent perceptions, people tended to interpret sex as more consensual when people transitioned from public to private settings. Regarding internal consent, alcohol use seemed to increase consent feelings of arousal and desire, but not feelings of comfort, safety, or wantedness. Regarding external consent, low levels of alcohol use seemed to increase some forms of communication (e.g. more explicit/verbal external consent), while higher levels seemed to increase other forms of communication (i.e. more implicit/nonverbal external consent). Intoxicated consent was often viewed as more understandable within established relationships. Overall, alcohol was interwoven into people's processes of sexual consent, revealing situations that defy binary definitions of consensual versus nonconsensual sex.

Campus sexual assault is a common problem in the United States, and students are often reluctant to report or seek support from official sources such as campus police or their Title IX office. Instead, they typically seek support from informal sources such as the people they know and trust. One common, yet often unacknowledged, source of support is university faculty. Yet, faculty are not typically prepared by their institutions to handle student disclosures of sexual assault and, thus, find themselves performing an intense form of emotional labor without adequate tools. In this study, we explored the emotional labor that faculty invest in managing the trauma of campus sexual assault. From interviews with 17 (mostly women) faculty members with experience responding to student disclosures of sexual assault on 11 different campuses, we found that faculty engaged in what we call "emotional overtime." In the absence of adequate institutional training, faculty engaged in self-preparation to support student victim-survivors of sexual assault and subsequently sought personal support for the toll that this work had on their own well-being. We conclude with recommendations regarding how institutional acknowledgment of - and training for - this important work can benefit faculty and student victim-survivors alike.

Rape myths support and fuel cultural understandings regarding gender roles and deny the victim's rights and strengthen those of the instigator. Little research exists examining the invariance of rape myths measures and models used to explain rape myths across gay and straight samples. Examining correlates of rape myths and determining if the pattern of relations between correlates is similar across gay and straight male and female samples provides insights into socially constant factors that are influencing rape myth acceptance. Participants (294 straight women, 282 gay women, 293 straight men, and 234 gay men) were asked to complete measures of social dominance orientation (SDO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), ambivalent sexism toward women, ambivalent sexism toward men, and rape myths toward women. We tested four models that highlighted significant, direct paths between SDO, RWA, and rape myth acceptance. Both hostile sexism toward women and benevolent sexism toward men demonstrated significant indirect effects between SDO, RWA, and rape myth acceptance. Benevolent sexism toward women and hostile sexism toward men demonstrated, in most samples, significant indirect effects between SDO, RWA, and rape myth acceptance. However, the strength of those relations differed for gay and heterosexual samples. This provides further understanding of rape myths as SDO, RWA, and benevolent and hostile sexism toward men and women play a role in supporting rape myth acceptance and establishes that, overall, these relations are more similar than dissimilar across straight and gay samples.

Sexual Objectification Theory posits that exposure to objectifying content, such as pornography, the purchase of sexual services, and adherence to traditional masculinity, can contribute to the acceptance of harmful beliefs about sexual violence. This study examined the relationship between rape myth acceptance and a range of attitudinal and personal factors using a sample of 1,603 internet users in Spain (51.6% women, M = 45.7 years old). The outcome variable was rape myth acceptance (α = .79), and the correlates included various forms of pornography consumption, purchasing sexual services, ambivalent sexism, comfort with sexuality, gender identification, and sociodemographic characteristics. The results indicate that rape myth acceptance was generally low (M = 2.03, range 1-5) and was associated with some sociodemographic characteristics, pornography consumption, ambivalent sexism, and comfort with sexuality. Ambivalent sexism, comfort with sexuality, and gender were the strongest predictors of rape myth acceptance, while pornography consumption had a limited impact on endorsing such beliefs. These findings provide insights into the factors influencing rape myth acceptance and offer guidance for developing policies to combat rape culture.

Sexual consent is a foundational aspect of sexual encounters as it distinguishes sexual assault from consensual sex. Despite alcohol-involved sexual assault being a serious public health issue, many college students report engaging in "consensual drunk sex." Thus, understanding how college students determine consent to alcohol-involved sex is essential. We explored college students' perceptions of consensual alcohol-involved sexual encounters, focusing on how they determine and communicate consent to sex after having consumed alcohol. We conducted 30 qualitative interviews with college students about their alcohol-involved sexual experiences, assessing how they communicated consent and determined alcohol-involved sex was consensual. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using reflective thematic analysis. We found five sequential, process-oriented themes: (1) presence in alcohol-intensive environments suggests "pre-consent," (2) alcohol-oriented socializing is an "initial consent" cue, (3) leaving alcohol-intensive environments suggest consent, (4) communicating consent immediately prior to sexual behavior is necessary, and (5) reflecting on and evaluating the encounter when sober helps determine consent, and an additional sixth theme reflecting participants' perceptions of risk associated with alcohol-involved sex. Our findings suggest college students rely on a range of cues to determine consent to alcohol-involved sex stemming from when they first meet in alcohol-intensive environments to when they are sober and engage in reflection. These cues underscore the complexities in consent communication in general, specifically highlighting further nuance when considering consent to alcohol-involved sexual behavior. Health promotion and sexual assault prevention educators should continue to incorporate consent into their initiatives, remaining attentive to the complexities and nuances inherent in consent.

The high rates of sexual inexperience and sexual inactivity reported from Japan have been subject to international attention. In this scoping review, we included 38 publications in English and Japanese (Jan 1st, 1974 to Sep 15th, 2024) comprising 43 surveys aimed at presenting population-based data on sexual inexperience, sexual inactivity and related variables, including indicators of sexual desire, interest in sexual relationships, sexual orientation and identities, sexual dysfunction and use of commercial sex worker services. Findings indicated that sexual inexperience had increased during the past decades such that around half of the Japanese population remained sexually inexperienced into their mid-twenties and approximately 10% of the individuals had no sexual experience when reaching their 30s, although most of the data pertained to heterosexual inexperience. The prevalence of sexual inactivity was high and had increased during the past decades, but these findings relied on less reliable data. While measures of sexual desire varied depending on definition and survey, a large proportion of the population reported that they had no interest in sexual relationships. Based on the reviewed data, several hypotheses regarding sexual inactivity in Japan and avenues for further research are suggested.

College sexual assault is a persistent public health problem in the United States. A public health approach to develop effective prevention strategies must take into account the social ecology of college campuses, including interpersonal-, community-, and institutional-level factors that may influence sexual assault. To maximize effectiveness, prevention strategies should be tailored to reflect contextual factors of specific college communities and situations where sexual assault is more likely to occur. Using one-on-one semi-structured interviews, this qualitative study of fraternity and sorority students examined interpersonal, community, and institutional factors influencing consent within the context of a hookup. Participants included 42 sexually active, predominantly heterosexual undergraduate fraternity and sorority members. From interviews, eight modifiable factors emerged that influence student consent behavior: (a) Awkwardness and fear of rejection; (b) Traditional heterosexual sexual scripts; (c) Coercion; (d) Men's fear of being accused of sexual assault; (e) Peers and the sexual double standard; (f) Sex and the Greek social hierarchy; (g) Drunk sex; and (h) Greek environments. College sexual assault prevention efforts should be tailored to the fraternity and sorority community and aim to address these eight factors to prevent sexual assault within the high-risk context of hookups.

College students frequently combine alcohol and sexual activity, often perceiving these encounters as consensual. However, alcohol use is also a significant risk factor for sexual assault. Recognizing that alcohol is implicated in both consensual and nonconsensual sexual activity, in this study we aimed to assess the relational and social dynamics of alcohol-involved, consensual sexual activity. We recruited 29 students from a large Midwestern university for interviews focused on alcohol and sexual decision-making. The interviews were analyzed using reflective thematic analysis. Participants relied heavily on "trust" to determine if they perceived an alcohol-involved sexual experience as consensual. They reported that they trusted their sexual partners not to harm them, with trust often based on contextual cues such as interacting with a potential partner at a party before having consumed alcohol or having a prior or current relationship with the potential partner. Additionally, college students reported trusting their friends to reduce harm during alcohol-involved sexual experiences and assist with deciphering their and/or their potential sexual partner's ability to consent. Overall, our participants seemed to use trust as a potential harm reduction strategy to navigate alcohol-involved sexual experiences so that they are consensual. Relying on others to assist in these moments can be beneficial and aligns with a community-based approach to preventing sexual assault. However, participants did not always acknowledge that their trusted friends or partners might also be intoxicated, potentially impairing their ability to assist. Our findings highlight the complexity of relying on intoxicated peers and partners for judgment in these contexts.

Despite the growing visibility of the asexual community across the globe, little is known about how individuals on the asexual spectrum navigate their (a)sexual experiences. Asexual individuals may be highly vulnerable to sexual violence victimization due to prejudice against their lack of sexual attraction. Perpetrators may seek to pressure asexual individuals into sexual activities by invalidating their asexuality or manipulating their need for emotional intimacy. Such non-consensual sexual acts or behaviors may have a profound impact on asexual individuals. The present study aimed to examine the prevalence of sexual violence victimization and its relationship with substance use among individuals identifying on the asexual spectrum. The data for this study were derived from a global sample of 8,752 individuals on the asexual spectrum from the Ace Community Survey. The results indicated that 67.4% of the participants had experienced at least one form of sexual violence victimization in their lifetime. Experiences of sexual violence were related to more frequent engagement in substance use over the past year. Additionally, the results showed that compared with asexual individuals, graysexual and demisexual individuals were more likely to experience sexual violence, which was linked to substance use. Given the widespread prevalence and detrimental effects of sexual violence victimization, it is important to integrate asexual perspectives into prevention and intervention efforts, while simultaneously raising public awareness about affirmative consent and boundaries. The study also offers significant implications for trauma-informed care, public education, and social policies that address the unique needs and experiences of this population.