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The Role of Sexual Scripts in Sexual Aggression and Victimization

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Abstract

Two longitudinal studies examined German adolescents’ sexual scripts in relation to the normative acceptance of sexual aggression, the behavioral enactment of risk factors, and the experience of sexual aggression/ victimization. Study 1 comprised a sample of 283 10th and 11th grade high school students who completed measures of sexual scripts, normative acceptance of risk elements associated with sexual aggression, behavioral risk-taking, and normative acceptance of sexual aggression in relationships twice with a nine-month interval. General and individual scripts differed significantly in terms of the prevalence of risk elements, with individual scripts containing fewer risk elements. Normative acceptance of risk elements was linked to the enactment of risky behavior in sexual interactions and also to the normative acceptance of sexual aggression, both concurrently and over time. In Study 2, 232 12th and 13th grade students completed measures of sexual scripts and of sexual aggression or sexual victimization. Higher risk scores in the individual scripts were predictive of sexual aggression among boys and sexual victimization among girls. The findings were discussed in terms of the significance of sexual scripts as guidelines for sexual behavior.

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Notes

  1. The instructions defining the meaning of the different forms of nonconsensual sexual contacts were worded as follows:

    The following questions are about whether or not you have ever made a woman engage in nonconsensual sexual acts, i.e., sexual acts against her will. By “nonconsensual,” we mean sexual contacts where you used or threatened to use physical force (e.g., holding her down, threatening her with a weapon); or exploited the fact that she was unable to resist (e.g., because she had consumed too much alcohol or drugs or because she was incapacitated for some other reason) or put verbal pressure on her (e.g., by threatening to end your relationship, by calling her a failure).

  2. The group of sexually aggressive men comprised 8.6% of participants who had shown moderate forms of sexual aggression (completed sexual acts through verbal aggression; or completed kissing/petting by exploiting victim incapacitation; or attempted kissing/petting through use/threat of force or by exploiting victim incapacitation) and 5.4% who reported severe acts of sexual aggression (completed kissing/petting through use/threat of force, attempted or completed intercourse or oral sex through exploitation of the victim's incapacitated state, attempted or completed intercourse or oral sex through use/threat of force). Among the female participants, 19% reported moderate and 12.7% reported severe sexual victimization. Because of the relatively low prevalence rates, the moderate and severe categories were combined to arrive at a dichotomous measure of sexual aggression and victimization, respectively. Attempted verbal pressure was not included in this analysis so as not to inflate the “sexual aggression” or “sexual victimization” group. Reports of sexual aggression/victimization collected at T1 and T2 were combined in this classification to arrive at an overall prevalence score for each participant. It would have been desirable to use aggression/victimization reports for the period between T1 and T2 as criteria for the predictive role of risk elements, but the incidence of both perpetration and victimization was too low to facilitate such an analysis.

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Acknowledgements

The research reported in this article was funded by the German Research Foundation (Kr 972/5-1). The authors would like to thank Anja Berger, Juliane Felber, and Kaspar Schattke for their assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, D-14476 Golm, Potsdam, Germany

    Barbara Krahé, Steffen Bieneck & Renate Scheinberger-Olwig

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  1. Barbara Krahé
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  2. Steffen Bieneck
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  3. Renate Scheinberger-Olwig
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Correspondence to Barbara Krahé.

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Krahé, B., Bieneck, S. & Scheinberger-Olwig, R. The Role of Sexual Scripts in Sexual Aggression and Victimization. Arch Sex Behav 36, 687–701 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-006-9131-6

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