A Different Pattern of Sexual Assault: Does Prior Sexual Assault Reduce College Victimization?

• In Event: Posters I

Abstract

Both childhood sexual abuse and college sexual assault are under-reported crimes that are not rare occurrences for women and men. While campuses struggle to understand the depth of the issue and meet Title IX requirements, campus climate studies are popping up all over. What is interesting is that research often reports lifetime prevalence of sexual victimization for students but are only asking about sexual assault not childhood sexual abuse. This research project compares reports of victimization from the Koss’ Sexual Experiences Survey (SES; Koss, Gidycz & Wisniewsky, 1987) with sexual victimization reported on the Child Abuse and Trauma Scale (CATS; Sanders & Becker-Lausen, 1995). Over 750 students enrolled in Introductory Criminal Justice in the 2015-2016 school year completed these measures. Participants were ethnically diverse and 40% were male. Prior research at this Southwestern University has shown high rates of sexual assault (e.g., 27.8% of female students, 5.3% of male students; Kennedy, Dooley, Taylor, 2010). This research will build on these findings by looking at earlier sexual victimization to see if it is fair to explain sexual victimization only using the SES measure.

Authors

• Karisa Noel Pavan, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Carol Ferranti, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• M. Alexis Kennedy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas