Boys Are Victims Too? Victim-Perpetrator Overlap in Adolescent Sexual Dating Abuse

• In Event: Roundtable: Domestic/Intimate Violence

Abstract

Prior research with youth exposed to violence suggests that boys may be victims of sexual dating abuse as frequently as girls. What matters to this gender symmetry remains understudied. This study focuses on whether adolescent sexual dating abuse and its gender asymmetry/symmetry can be explained by theoretical constructs grounded in social learning, general strain, and social bonding theories. Based on survey data collected from high school students of 32 schools in cities and rural counties in Guangdong and Hunan provinces in China, the latent class analysis shows two main patterns of sexual dating abuse: victim-only particularly among girls and an victim-perpetrator overlap particular among boys. Among the key covariates of interest, exposure to community violence victimization is the most consistent predictor of the increased odds of the victim-perpetrator overlap in sexual dating abuse among boys rather than girls. This result suggests that boys from high-risk communities are more likely to condone sexually abusive acts against a female dating partner but they are equally likely to be victimized by sexual dating abuse. Victimization by girls may fuel anti-feminine attitudes and hostility, thereby precipitating sexual dating abuse by males as a means of maintaining dominance over women.

Author

• Nicole W.T. Cheung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong