Perceptions of Sexual Coercion in Heterosexual Dating Relationships: The Role of Aggressor Gender and Tactics‪.‬

Sexual coercion is a significant problem in college dating relationships. Shook, Gerrity, Jurich, and Segrist (2000) found that in a college sample, 82% reported using verbally coercive and 21% reported using physically coercive behaviors against a dating partner in the last year. Other research has found similarly high rates of sexual coercion (e.g., Jenkins & Aube, 2002; Koss & Oros, 1982; Russell & Oswald, 2001, 2002). Though much of the initial research focused on men as aggressors and women as victims, and statistics indicate that this situation is a major social problem, recently researchers have begun to acknowledge that women are also coercive in their intimate relationships (e.g., Anderson & Struckman-Johnson, 1998; Archer, 2000). This growing body of research suggests that both men and women report engaging in a wide range of coercive tactics to obtain sex within the context of a dating relationship. The goal of this study is to examine participants' perceptions of the actors and their behaviors when they are sexually coercive on a date. In this study, sexual coercion is conceptualized to include a variety of tactics used to obtain sexual acts or intercourse from an unwilling partner. The behaviors range on a continuum that includes verbal pressure and threats and the use of physical force to obtain sexual acts, such as kissing, petting, or intercourse. Research on college heterosexual dating relationships has found a high rate of coercion and aggression perpetrated against women. Koss and Oros (1982) found that in their sample of college men, 23% reported obtaining sexual intercourse by threatening to end the relationship, 20% reported using some degree of physical force to obtain sex acts, and 3% reported having used physical force to obtain intercourse. More recently, Russell and Oswald (2002) found similar results; 36% of college men in their sample reported engaging in at least one sexually coercive behavior in a dating relationship.