title: An analysis of empirical estimates of sexual aggression victimization and perpetration.
abstract: Estimates of prevalence for several categories of sexual coercion, including rape and attempted rape, were statistically aggregated across 120 studies, involving over 100,000 subjects. According to the data, almost 13% of women and over 3% of men have been raped, and almost 5% of men claim to have perpetrated rape. In contrast, about 25% of women and men claim to have been sexually coerced and to have perpetrated sexual coercion. In general, the mediating variables examined--population type, decade, date of publication, and type of operationalization--were not consistently related to rates of victimization or perpetration. Nevertheless, the extensive variation among study estimates strongly suggests the possibility of systematic sources of variation that have yet to be identified. Further analyses are called for to disentangle such sources.
authors.affiliation: School of Communication, San Diego State University, CA 92182-4561, USA.
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Spitzberg
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D015982:Bias; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003625:Data Collection; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D015995:Prevalence; D011902:Rape / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology