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Sexual Victimization and Sexual Harassment among College Students: a Comparative Analysis

Journal of Family Violence volume 35, pages 603–618 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

Sexual victimization, defined as non-contact unwanted sexual experiences (e.g., sexual harassment), unwanted sexual contact, sexual coercion, forcible rape, or alcohol- or drug-facilitated assault or rape, is nontrivial among the college study population. This study explores how the situational contexts, which include self-reported consequences and responses to victimization, compare between incidents of non-contact sexual harassment (SH) and contact sexual victimization (CSV) (e.g., unwanted sexual contact, sexual coercion, and rape). Conjunctive analyses compare the commonality and variation among situational contexts of incidents of SH and incidents of CSV from a sample of survivors from 24 different colleges. Both forms of sexual violence negatively impact college students. Respondents who experienced SH only (i.e., did not also experience CSV) in the past year and those who experienced contact CSV only (i.e., did not also experience non-contact SH) in the past year both reported negative outcomes associated with the victimization, but it was more common for survivors of SH only to report being intimidated and feeling uncomfortable in their environment at the college. The implications of this study are twofold. First, scholars should ensure that research on the negative effects of CSV does not come at the expense of other forms of sexual victimization. Second, practitioners, campus services, and prevention programs should acknowledge both contact and non-contact sexual victimization in programming and services in order to buffer the negative effects resulting from victimization.

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Notes

  1. GBA refers to gender-based abuse.

  2. 594 individuals in initial sample reported experiencing both SH and at least one form of CSV.

  3. Cantor et al. (2015; p. xv, 29) defined sexual harassment as experiencing any of the following (1) made sexual remarks or told jokes or stories that were insulting or offensive to you?; (2) made inappropriate or offensive comments about your or someone else’s body, appearance or sexual activities?; (3) said crude or gross sexual things to you or tried to get you to talk about sexual matters when you didn’t want to?; (4) emailed, texted, tweeted, phoned, or instant messaged offensive sexual remarks, jokes, stories, pictures or videos to you that you didn’t want?; (5) continued to ask you to go out, get dinner, have drinks or have sex even though you said, “No”?

  4. Although some individuals do experience both sexual harassment and CSV, due to the nature of our analytic strategy, it is not possible to disentangle the responses and consequences to each type of victimization among these individuals. As such, we focus only on the situational contexts reported by survivors of one type of sexual victimization – sexual harassment or CSV.

  5. These data were collected by a University of Kentucky based team, and funds were provided by Bystander Program Adoption & Efficacy to Reduce SV-IPV in College Community. Funding source: Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Cooperative Agreement U01 CE002668. (Multi College Bystander Efficacy Evaluation). The team included Principal Investigators Ann L. Coker, PhD, MPH and Heather M. Bush, PhD., as well as Candace J. Brancato, Emily R. Clear, and Kelsey Rutherford.

  6. We only include information from incidents that occurred within the previous year and not “ever” in order to capture experiences of students while enrolled at the college.

  7. 594 students reported experiencing both sexual harassment and contact sexual victimization. Unfortunately, we are not able to discern if the experience of SH was related to CSV or if the perpetrator of SH also perpetrated an act of CSV against the victim due to the structure of the interview schedule.

  8. The analyses originally included whether the student was full- or part-time. Given the little variation in this variable (95% were full-time), it was excluded from the analysis. The analyses also originally included respondent’s age and year in school. Age and year in school were highly correlated (r = .80), and a series of analysis demonstrated that year in school was unrelated to the outcome. In the end, age was also unrelated so we opted to remove both from the analysis to make the matrix easier to interpret.

  9. 12,288 = 3 [gender identity] * 2 [sexual orientation] * 4 [race/ethnicity] * 2 [interfere] * 2 [limit] * 2 [intimidate] * 2 [bothered] * 2 [detached] * 2 [talk/family] * 2 [talk/counselor] * 2 [different] * 2 [leave].

  10. Differences noted in the text are statistically significant at the p < 0.05 level.

  11. This is the term used in CACC analyses and not a term chosen by the authors. In this case, deviant does not indicate uncommon.

  12. A comprehensive matrix of all 68 dominant contexts is available upon request.

  13. We recognize that MeToo began long before 2016/17 with the work of Tarana Burke in 2007. Of special interest in terms of data collection is the large attention given to hashtag MeToo which commenced in October of 2017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Box 455009, Las Vegas, NV, 89154, USA

    Gillian M. Pinchevsky

  2. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Amy B. Magnuson

  3. The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Megan Bears Augustyn

  4. The University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Callie Marie Rennison

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Appendix. Sexual Victimization Items

Appendix. Sexual Victimization Items

Non-contact Sexual Harassment (1 = responded at least one time to any item; 0 = responded 0 times to all items)

1. Since Fall (YEAR) while you were a student at (SCHOOL), how many times has a student or someone employed by or otherwise associated with (SCHOOL)

a. Made sexual remarks or told jokes or stories that were insulting or offensive (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

b. Made inappropriate or offense comments about your or somebody else’s body, appearance or sexual activities (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

c. Emailed, texted, tweeted, phoned, or instant messaged offensive sexual remarks, jokes, stories, pictures or videos that you did not want (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

d. Harassed, insulted, threatened or intimidated you because they thought you might be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

Contact sexual victimization (1 = responded at least one time to any item; 0 = responded no to all items)

1. Since Fall (YEAR) while you were a student at (SCHOOL) has someone used physical force or threats of physical force to make you do the following things:

a. Sexual penetration (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

b. Oral sex (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

2. Since Fall (YEAR) while you were a student at (SCHOOL) has someone used physical force or threats of physical force in an unsuccessful attempt to make you do the following

a. Sexual penetration (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

b. Oral sex (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

3. Since Fall (YEAR) while you were a student at (SCHOOL), have either of the following happened to you while you were unable to consent or stop what was happening because you were passed out, asleep or incapacitated due to drugs or alcohol

a. Sexual penetration (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

b. Oral sex (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

4. Since Fall (YEAR) while you have been attending (SCHOOL) has someone had contact with you involving penetration or oral sex by threatening non-physical harm or promising rewards such that you felt you must comply (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

5. Since Fall (YEAR) while you have been attending (SCHOOL) has someone had contact with you involving penetration or oral sex without your active, ongoing voluntary consent? (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

6. Since Fall (YEAR) while you were a student at (SCHOOL), how many times has a student or someone employed by or otherwise associated with (SCHOOL)

a. Physically hurt you (including forced sex) because they thought you might be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (Responses: 0, 1, 2, 3–5, 6–10, more than 10 times)

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Pinchevsky, G.M., Magnuson, A.B., Augustyn, M.B. et al. Sexual Victimization and Sexual Harassment among College Students: a Comparative Analysis. J Fam Viol 35, 603–618 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-019-00082-y

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Keywords

  • Sexual victimization
  • Sexual harassment
  • College students