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Risk Perception and Sexual Assault

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Handbook of Sexual Assault and Sexual Assault Prevention

Abstract

This chapter presents research on sexual assault and risk perception among women. Different paradigms for research on risk perception are described, and then studies examining perceived risk for sexual assault are presented. Optimistic bias, as it pertains to women’s understanding of general risk for sexual assault and personal vulnerability, is discussed. Research on situational risk perception is summarized, including research on risk recognition as well as behavioral response to risk. Research on the link between women’s alcohol consumption and impaired risk perception is discussed, with a particular focus on lab-based analog experiments regarding the role of alcohol intoxication on women’s risk recognition and response. Studies of global alcohol consumption and risk perception are also included. Throughout the review of research on risk perception, the role of previous victimization history and the impact of revictimization on risk perception and related factors are examined. The chapter ends discussing how traumatic distress may influence women’s risk recognition and responses, including discussion of the unique role of specific forms of psychopathology such as PTSD. A critique of the research and suggestions for future investigations are offered.

You were alone, isolated, and weak. The three of them had been watching girls all night, waiting for someone to separate from the group. It happened to be you, but it could’ve been anyone. Opportunity is what matters, nothing else…

I’m telling you…Watch the nature channel. Predators go for the easy prey.

—Mindy McGinnis, The Female of the Species (2016, p. 157)

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  1. Department of Psychology, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA

    Terri L. Messman-Moore & Selime R. Salim

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  1. Terri L. Messman-Moore
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Correspondence to Terri L. Messman-Moore .

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA

    William T. O’Donohue

  2. Department of Criminology, Law, and Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Paul A. Schewe

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Messman-Moore, T.L., Salim, S.R. (2019). Risk Perception and Sexual Assault. In: O’Donohue, W.T., Schewe, P.A. (eds) Handbook of Sexual Assault and Sexual Assault Prevention. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23645-8_12

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