Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
Department of Education and Psychology, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Aggress Behav. 2022 Nov;48(6):573-582. doi: 10.1002/ab.22043. Epub 2022 Jun 29.
From the beginning of systematic research on sexual victimization, it has been recognized that a substantial proportion of women report nonconsensual sexual experiences meeting the defining criteria of rape in response to behaviorally specific items, but do not acknowledge their experience as rape in response to broad questions about whether they have ever been raped. Recent studies suggest that rates of unacknowledged rape may be as high or even higher among men than among women. This study examined rates of unacknowledged female and male victims of rape and sexual assault by comparing responses to behaviorally specific items of the Sexual Aggression and Victimization Scale (SAV-S) with responses to broad questions using the labels of sexual assault and rape (SARA) in 593 participants (303 women) in Germany. As predicted, more women and men were classified as rape victims based on behaviorally specific items than on the basis of the broad rape item. The rates of unacknowledged rape were about 60% for women and 75% for men. The gender difference was not significant. Against our prediction, no significant differences in acknowledgement of sexual assault were found in relation to coercive strategy and victim-perpetrator relationship. Few cases of rape and sexual assault identified by the SARA items were missed by the behaviorally specific questions. The implications for establishing prevalence rates of rape and sexual assault and for comparing victims and nonvictims in terms of vulnerability factors and outcomes of sexual victimization are discussed.
从性侵犯的系统研究开始，人们就已经认识到，相当一部分女性在针对具体行为的项目中报告了非自愿的性行为，这些性行为符合强奸的定义标准，但在回答关于她们是否曾经被强奸的广泛问题时，并不承认自己的经历是强奸。最近的研究表明，未被承认的男性强奸的比例可能与女性一样高，甚至更高。本研究通过比较性行为特定项目与使用性侵犯和强奸标签的广泛问题的反应，比较了德国 593 名参与者（303 名女性）中未被承认的女性和男性强奸和性侵犯受害者的比例（SAV-S）。正如所预测的，更多的女性和男性根据具体行为项目而不是基于广泛的强奸项目被归类为强奸受害者。未被承认的强奸率约为女性的 60%，男性的 75%。性别差异不显著。与我们的预测相反，在强制策略和受害者-施害者关系方面，对性侵犯的承认没有显著差异。通过 SARA 项目确定的少数强奸和性侵犯案件被具体行为问题遗漏了。本研究结果对确定强奸和性侵犯的流行率以及根据易受伤害因素和性侵犯后果来比较受害者和非受害者具有重要意义。
