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Sexual Assaulters in the United States: Prevalence and Psychiatric Correlates in a National Sample

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Abstract

This study presents sociodemographic characteristics and psychiatric correlates of a representative sample of sexual assaulters in the United States. Data were drawn from a nationally representative survey, the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Face-to-face interviews of more than 43,000 adults were conducted between the 2001–2002 period, based on the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule-DSM-IV Version. The prevalence of committing sexual assault in the U.S. was 0.15 %. Sexual assaulters had significantly lower education than their counterparts. Sexual assaulters were significantly more likely to report a wide range of antisocial behaviors. Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated strong associations between sexual assault and lifetime psychiatric disorders often associated with impaired impulse control, such as antisocial personality disorder, conduct disorder, and cocaine use disorder. In addition, psychotic disorders were consistently associated with sexual assault. Our findings indicate that sexual assault could represent a behavioral manifestation of a broader spectrum, including impairment of impulse control and psychotic disorders.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for making their dataset publicly available.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Service de Psychiatrie, Hôpital Corentin-Celton, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), 92130, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France

    Nicolas Hoertel, Jean-Pierre Schuster & Frédéric Limosin

  2. Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France

    Nicolas Hoertel, Jean-Pierre Schuster & Frédéric Limosin

  3. Centre de Psychiatrie et Neurosciences, Inserm, U894, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France

    Yann Le Strat & Frédéric Limosin

  4. Service de Psychiatrie, Hôpital Louis Mourier, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Colombes, France

    Yann Le Strat

  5. Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France

    Yann Le Strat

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  1. Nicolas Hoertel
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  2. Yann Le Strat
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  3. Jean-Pierre Schuster
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  4. Frédéric Limosin
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Correspondence to Nicolas Hoertel.

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Hoertel, N., Le Strat, Y., Schuster, JP. et al. Sexual Assaulters in the United States: Prevalence and Psychiatric Correlates in a National Sample. Arch Sex Behav 41, 1379–1387 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-9943-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-9943-5

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