Science / Medicine : Sexual Aggression Studied

Some young men are so strongly attracted to sexual aggression that more than a fourth of those responding to a scientific inquiry said they would be at least somewhat likely to commit rape if they could get away with it, a UCLA researcher reported last week.

Writing in the current issue of the Journal of Sex Research, UCLA psychology professor Neil Malamuth said there is a substantial number of men who have never committed such an act, but who do not find sexual aggressiveness reprehensible.

“The data suggest that to actually commit sexual aggression, several personality tendencies have to be present,” Malamuth said. “But there is a profile of people who are attracted to sexual aggression and another profile for those who actually commit it.”

To make his assessments, Malamuth and his colleagues developed a 14-item questionnaire that allowed them to clearly separate sexual aggressiveness from other forms of aggressive behavior, he said.

Twenty-six percent of the men surveyed, all of whom were university students in Canada, ranging between ages 18 and 25, said they would be at least somewhat likely to commit rape if they could escape punishment.

“More men said they would force a woman to commit a sexual act against her will than (would) rob a bank,” Malamuth said of a two-part question asked of the test subjects.

But only 1.7% of the respondents said they would be very likely to commit rape if they could get away with it, Malamuth said.