The Nature and Extent of Sexual Assault for Young Adults

• In Event: Sexual Assault and Emerging Adults

Abstract

The sexual assault literature tends to be divided between childhood sexual abuse defined as sexual contact that occurs between a child and an older individual like a family member or individual in a caretaking role such as a physician, babysitter, or teacher (c.f Bulik, Prescott, & Kendler, 2001; Finkelhor et al, 2014) and adult populations who report to the police. Less is known however, about the population of emerging adults. This group is described as including young people from their late teens to early twenties who are developmentally distinctive from older adults (Arnett, 2007). Yet, extant research includes this population in with adults of all ages. As a result, there is scant knowledge of the correlates of sexual assault for this group.

To fill this gap in the literature, we analyze data collected from all reports of sexual assault to six police departments located across the United States between 2008 and 2010. This population of reports allows us to isolate a sample of victims in emerging adulthood and to identify the correlates of assaults reported to the police—particularly the legal and extralegal factors of complaints that are often discussed in the literature. This paper contributes to our understanding of the nature and extent of sexual assault for emerging adults.

Authors

• Melissa S. Morabito, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

• April Pattavina, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

• Linda M. Williams, Wellesley Centers for Women