Causal Model of Sexual Aggression Against Women

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Causal Model of Sexual Aggression Against Women
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Todays Agenda

• Social Learning Theory
• Correlations
• Sexual Aggression
• Statistics
• intimate relationships
• The Link between Pornography Sexual Aggression
• 4 categories of studies
• Discuss Malamuth Check, Lanis Covell,
  Barongan Hall
• strengths limitations of experiments vs.
  surveys
• Predicting Sexual Aggression Does pornography
  use predict sexual aggression?

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Social Learning Theory

• People learn values styles of behavior by
  observing others, (imitation of a model
  modeling)
• Learning a behavior can occur without performing
  it.
• Focus on cognition awareness and expectations of
  future reinforcements and/or punishments can have
  a major effect on behaviors people perform, i.e.
  motivation.
• Vicarious reinforcement Watching a model receive
  rewards/punishments, i.e. Bobo doll study.
• Direct reinforcement receiving external or
  internal rewards/punishments (i.e. cookies vs.
  personal fulfillment)
• Conditions necessary for effective modeling

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Correlations

• r statistical symbol for the strength of a
  correlation
• r 1.0 (perfect positive correlation)
• Ex ? days attended class ? grade
• r -1.0 (perfect negative correlation)
• Ex ? days missed class ? grade
• r 0.0 (no relationship)
• p statistical significance,,
• p like this just by chance)
• p like this just by chance)

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Correlations

• Correlation ? Causation
• 3 kinds of relationships
• Unidirectional
• A ? B or B ? A
• Bidirectional
• A ? B
• Do aggressive people seek violent media or does
  violent media cause aggressive behavior?
• Spurious due to the effect of a third variable
• ? number of firemen ? losses in a
  fire
• Third variable is size of the fire.
• Could other variables could be accounting for the
  relationship?

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Aggression

• Definition of Aggression
• Behavior
• Intended aimed at hurting another person
• Hostile Aggression vs. Instrumental Aggression
• Harm as an end in itself, gratification from harm
• Harm to serve another goal
• Boys are generally more aggressive than girls
  across cultures,
• But context matters (i.e. girls w/ siblings
  boys w/o)
• Most common during youth
• ? of murder victims and ½ of murder offenders are
  

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Violent Crime Statistics

• US is 1 in western society in serious assault
  and murder rates
• Total violent crimes victimizations reported to
  the police arrests for violent crimes
• Most victims and perpetrators in violent crimes
  are male
• Male perpetrator/Male victim 65
• Male perpetrator/Female victim 22
• 90 of homicide offenders are male
• 75 of homicide victims are male

Violent crime rape, robbery,
aggravated/simple assault
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Sexual Aggression

• Statistics about sexual violence vary due to
  differences in how it is defined and how data is
  collected.
• Police reports
• Reports of arrests convictions (reliable
  accurate data)
• Rarely able to detect all crime in a given
  jurisdiction (fail to identify offenders, not
  enough evidence so victim drops charges)
• For domestic violence in privacy of home, most is
  undetected
• In 2002, only 39 of rapes and sexual assaults
  were reported to law enforcement officials (DOJ
  2003).
• National crime surveys
• Asks about criminal victimization
• Victims dont always accurately recall crime,
  arent always aware behaviors are criminal
• National family violence survey
• Asks both men and women about frequency of
  violence in the home.
• Questions minimize shame and deviance of
  conflicts to encourage reportage

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Sexual Aggression Statistics

• About 2 out of 1000 children in the United States
  were confirmed by child protective service
  agencies as having experienced sexual assault in
  2003 (DHHS 2005). 
• Among college students nationwide, 20 - 25 of
  women reported experiencing completed or
  attempted rape (Fisher, Cullen, and Turner 2000).
  
• Among adults nationwide
• More than 300,000 women (0.3) and over 90,000
  men (0.1) reported being raped in the previous
  12 months.
• One in six women (17) and one in thirty-three
  men (3) reported experiencing an attempted or
  completed rape at some time in their lives.
• Rape usually occurs more than once. Among adults
  who report being raped, women experienced 2.9
  rapes and men experienced 1.2 rapes in the
  previous year (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000).

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Sexual Aggression Statistics

• Women are more likely to be victims of sexual
  violence than men
• 78 of the victims of rape and sexual assault are
  women and 22 are men (Tjaden and Thoennes
  2000). 
• Sexual violence victimization starts very early
  in life. 
• 54 of all rapes of women occur before age 18
• 22 of these rapes occur before age 12.
• For men, 75 of all rapes occur before age 18,
  and 48 occur before age 12 (Tjaden and Thoennes
  2000).

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Intimacy Sexual Aggression

• In 8 out of 10 rape cases, the victim knows the
  perpetrator (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000).
• A national survey found that 10 of women were
  victims of rape or attempted rape by a husband or
  intimate partner in their lifetime (Basile 2002).
  
• Of people who report sexual violence, 64 of
  women and 16 of men were raped, physically
  assaulted, or stalked by an intimate partner,
  (current or former spouse, cohabitating partner,
  boyfriend/girlfriend, or date). (Tjaden and
  Thoennes 2000).

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Pornography Sexual Aggression Research The
Overview

• Experimentally Manipulate Pornography Exposure
  measure
• Attitudes supporting sexual aggression against
  women
• Aggression against women in the laboratory.
• Surveys ask participants to self-report
  pornography use measure
• Sexual Aggression
• Attitudes supporting sexual aggression

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Attitudes Supporting Sexual Aggression Against
Women

• Rape Myth Acceptance (RMA)
• Ex any healthy woman can resist a rapist if she
  really wants to.
• Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence (AIV)
• Ex sometimes the only way to turn on a cold
  woman is by using force.
• Adversarial Sex Beliefs (ASB)
• most women are sly and manipulative when they
  are out to attract a man
• Sex Role Stereotype (SRS)
• There is something wrong with a woman who does
  not want to marry and raise a family.
• 7 point scale ranging from strongly disagree to
  strongly agree.

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Advertising Images Attitudes Supporting Sexual
Aggression

• Participants viewed advertisements on cards that
  showed either
• Women portrayed as sexual objects, serving no
  relevant purpose related to the advertised
  product
• Women portrayed in progressive non-stereotypical
  roles
• Advertised products with no humans (control)
• Afterwards, experimenters measured participants
  Sexual Attitudes
• Sex role stereotyping
• Adversarial sexual beliefs
• Acceptance of interpersonal violence
• Rape myth acceptance
• Participants found the control ad most appealing
• RMA among men in the sex-object condition males
  in control
• Women in both sex-object and progressive
  conditions were less accepting of RMA than
  control.
• Progressive ads had no effect on men, but women
  in the progressive ad condition had lower RMA
  scores than control.
• Overall attitudes supporting sexual aggression
  were higher among men in the sex-object condition
  than men in the control, women in all conditions

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Lanis Covell (1995)
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Malamuth Check (1981)
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Misogynous Rap Lyrics Sexual Aggression in a
Laboratory Setting

• Participants listened to either misogynous rap
  lyrics or neutral rap lyrics
• Afterwards, participants could show a female
  confederate a 2 minute clip from the film I Spit
  on Your Grave that was either
• Neutral
• Sexually violent
• Extremely sexually violent
• A significantly greater proportion of men showed
  a sexually violent clip after hearing misogynous
  rap lyrics as compared to neutral rap lyrics.
• Even though female confederate showed no reaction
  to clips, the participants believed the clip
  upset her, indicating intention to harm.

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Barongan Hall (1995)
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Pornography Sexual Aggression Research

• Experimentally manipulate pornography exposure
  measure
• Attitudes supporting sexual aggression against
  women - meta-analysis supported a causal effect
• Aggression against women in the laboratory -
  meta-analysis supported a causal effect

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Pornography Sexual Aggression Research

• Surveys self-reported pornography use and
• Sexual Aggression
• Convicted sex offenders vs. non-sex offenders
  (findings of meta-analyses)
• Frequency of pornography use no differences
• Age of first exposure to pornography no
  differences
• Likelihood of acting out in a sexual manner post
  pornography exposure - differences
• Physiological sexual arousal differences
• Self-reported sexual aggression among
  non-criminals (college students) related to
  pornography use, but with conditions
• Not enough research
• Among men who demonstrate risk characteristics,
  very frequent pornography use increases the
  likelihood of reporting previous sexual
  aggression.
• Attitudes supporting sexual aggression
• among male college students no consistent
  relationship between self-reported pornography
  use attitudes supporting sexual aggression

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strengths limitations of experiments vs. surveys
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Risk Factors for Sexual Aggression

• Individual Factors
• Alcohol and drug use
• Coercive sexual fantasies
• Impulsive and antisocial tendencies
• Preference for impersonal sex
• Hostility towards women
• Hypermasculinity
• Childhood history of sexual and physical abuse
  and/or witnessed family violence as a child
• Relationship Factors
• Association with sexually aggressive and
  delinquent peers
• Family environment characterized by physical
  violence and few resources
• Strong patriarchal relationship or familial
  environment
• Emotionally unsupportive familial environment
• Community Factors
• Lack of employment opportunities
• Lack of institutional support from police and
  judicial system
• General tolerance of sexual assault within the
  community
• Settings that support sexual violence
• Weak community sanctions against sexual violence
  perpetrators

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Predicting Sexual AggressionThe Confluence
Model Malamuth (2003)
Images in pornography reinforce impersonal sexual
orientation hostile attitudes supporting
aggression against women and/or reduces
inhibitions against sexual aggression
Antisocial Personality Irritability, Narcissism,
Low Empathy
Convicted sex criminals are more likely to engage
in sexual acts after viewing pornography
High Sex Drive, Orientation towards high
quantity short term sexual relationships
Beliefs Attitudes Supporting Violence Against
Women
Aggressive men are drawn to the images in
pornography. Convicted sex criminals are more
likely to be sexually aroused by violent
pornography.
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Confluence Model Risk x Pornography Consumption
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Readings for Next Class

• Kilbourne, J., (1999). Two ways a woman can get
  hurt Advertising Violence (pp. 270 - 291). In
  Can't Buy My Love How Advertising Changes the
  Way We Think Feel. New York Simon Schuster.
  
• Kilbourne, J., (1999). The more you subtract, the
  more you add Cutting girls down to size. (pp.
  128 - 154). In Can't Buy My Love How Advertising
  Changes the Way We Think Feel. New York Simon
  Schuster.
• Kenrick, D.T., Gutierres, S.E., Goldberg, L.L.,
  (1989). Influence of popular erotica on judgments
  of strangers and mates. Journal of Experimental
  Social Psychology , 25 (2), 159-167.