Abstract
Social rules regarding sexual behavior indicate when sex may be desired, expected, or obligatory. Some of these rules legitimize a man's initiation of sex with a woman regardless of the woman's desires or intentions; such situations could potentially lead to rape. Middle school, high school, and university students completed a Rules About Sex Questionnaire on which they indicated the situations in which a man could assume a woman wants to have sex. The results indicated that girls and women endorsed fewer rules than did boys and men. University students endorsed the fewest rules, and middle school students endorsed the most rules. Endorsement of rules was associated with boys' and men's self-reported sexually coercive behavior and with beliefs about who should initiate sex. The findings may be useful in the design of sexual assault prevention programs for adolescents.
Similar content being viewed by others
references
Abbey, A., McAuslan, P., & Ross, L. T. (1998). Sexual assault perpetration by college men: The role of alcohol, misperception of sexual intent, and sexual beliefs and experiences. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 17, 167-195.
Abbey, A., Ross, L. T., McDuffie, D., & McAuslan, P. (1996). Alcohol and dating risk factors for sexual assault among college women.Psychology of Women Quarterly, 20 147-169.
Abma, J., Driscoll, A., & Moore, K. (1998). Young women's degree of control over first intercourse: An exploratory analysis. Family Planning Perspectives, 30 12-18.
Aljazireh, L. M. (1996). Attitudes and cognitive distortions of male adolescent sexual offenders. Dissertation Abstracts International, 56 (8), 4570B. (UMI No. AAM9543408)
Baumeister, R. F., Cantanese, K. R., & Wallace, H. M. (2002). Conquest by force: A narcissistic reactance theory of rape and sexual coercion. Review of General Psychology, 6 92-135.
Blumberg, M. L., & Lester, D. (1991). High school and college students´ attitudes toward rape. Adolescence, 26 727-729.
Bondurant, B., & Donat, P. L. N. (1999). Perceptions of women's sexual interest and acquaintance rape: The role of sexual overperception and affective attitudes. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 23 691-705.
Burt, M. R. (1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38 217-230.
Burt, M. R. (1991). Rape myths and acquaintance rape. In A. Parrot & L. Bechhofer (Eds.), Acquaintance rape: The hidden crime (pp. 26-40). New York: Wiley.
Card, C. (1991). Rape as a terrorist institution. In R. G. Frey & C. W. Morris (Eds.), Violence, terrorism, and justice (pp. 296-319). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cassidy, L., & Hurrell, R. M. (1995). The influence of victim's attire on adolescents´ judgments of date rape. Adolescence, 30 319-323.
Cialdini, R. B. (1993). Influence: Science and practice(3rd ed.). New York: HarperCollins.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Cowan, G., & Campbell, R. R. (1995). Rape causal attitudes among adolescents. Journal of Sex Research, 32 145-153.
Cowan, G., & Quinton, W. J. (1997). Cognitive style and attitudinal correlates of the perceived causes of rape scale. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21 227-245.
Epps, K. J., Haworth, R., & Swaffer, T. (1993). Attitudes toward women and rape among male adolescents convicted of sexual versus nonsexual crimes. Journal of Psychology, 127 501-506.
Feltey, K. M., Ainslie, J. J., & Geib, A. (1991). Sexual coercion attitudes among high school students: The influence of gender and rape education. Youth and Society, 23 229-250.
Goodchilds, J. D., & Zellman, G. L. (1984). Sexual signaling and sexual aggression in adolescent relationships. In N. M. Malamuth & E. Donnerstein (Eds.), Pornography and sexual aggression (pp. 233-243). New York: Academic Press.
Greene, D. M., & Navarro, R. L. (1998). Situation-specific assertiveness in the epidemiology of sexual victimization among university women: A prospective path analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22 589-604.
Hall, E. R., & Flannery, P. J. (1984). Prevalence and correlates of sexual assault experiences in adolescents. Victimology, 9 398-406.
Hall, E. R., Howard, J. A., & Boezio, S. L. (1986). Tolerance of rape: A sexist or antisocial attitude≟ Psychology of Women Quarterly, 10 101-118.
Haworth, T. F. (2000). Adolescents àt risk´ to be perpetrator or victim of sexual violence. Dissertation Abstracts International, 61 (4), 2201B. (UMI No. AAI9968279)
Hills, B., Laner, M. R., & Ventrone, N. A. (1998). Egalitarian daters/traditionalist dates. Journal of Family Issues, 19 468-477.
Humphrey, C. F. (1996, August). Acquaintance rape: Developing a contemporary measure of attitudes. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association,Chicago, IL.
Humphrey, J. A., & White, J. W. (2000). Women's vulnerability to sexual assault from adolescence to young adulthood. Journal of Adolescent Health, 27 419-424.
Hutchinson, R. L., Tess, D. E., Gleckman, A. D., Hagans, C. L., & Reese, L. R. E. (1994). Students´ perceptions of male sexually aggressive behavior as a function of educational level and gender. Sex Roles, 30 407-422.
Johnson, S. C. (1967). Hierarchical clustering schemes. Psychometrika, 32 241-254.
Kane, E. W., & Schippers, M. (1996). Men's and womenapos;s beliefs about gender and sexuality. Gender and Society, 10 650-665.
Kids blame victim for date rape. (1988, May 3). Tribune-Star, p. A1.
Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., & Martin, C. E. (1948). Sexual behavior in the human male. Philadelphia: Saunders.
Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., Martin, C. E., & Gebhard, P. H. (1953). Sexual behavior in the human female. Philadelphia: Saunders.
Kinsman, S. B., Romer, D., Furstenberg, F. F., & Schwarz, D. F. (1998). Early sexual initiation: The role of peer norms. Pediatrics, 102 1185-1192.
Koss, M. P. (1993). Rape: Scope, impact, interventions, and public policy responses. American Psychologist, 48 1062-1069.
Koss, M. P., & Dinero, T. E. (1989). Discriminate analysis of risk factors for sexual victimization among a national sample of college women. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57 242-250.
Krahe, B. (1998). Sexual aggression among adolescents: Prevalence and predictors in a German sample. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22 537-554.
Ku, L., Sonenstein, F. L., Lindberg, L. D., Bradner, C. H., Boggess, S., & Pleck, J. H. (1998). Understanding changes in sexual activity among young metropolitan men: 1979–1995. Family Planning Perspectives, 30 256-262.
Laumann, E. O., Gagnon, J. H., Michael, R. T., & Michaels, S. (1994). The social organization of sexuality: Sexual practices in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lonsway, K. A., & Fitzgerald, L. F. (1994). Rape myths: In review. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18 133-164.
Males, M., & Chew, K. (1996). The ages of fathers in California adolescent births, 1993. American Journal of Public Health, 86 565-568.
McClintock, M. K., & Herdt, G. (1996). Rethinking puberty: The development of sexual attraction. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 5 178-183.
Miller, B. C., Norton, M. C., Curtis, T., Hill, E. J., Schvaneveldt, P., & Young, M. H. (1997). The timing of sexual intercourse among adolescents: Family, peer, and other antecedents. Youth and Society, 29 54-83.
Miller, K. S., Clark, L. F., & Moore, J. S. (1997). Sexual initiation with older male partners and subsequent HIV risk behavior among female adolescents. Family Planning Perspectives, 29 212-214.
Muehlenhard, C. L., & Rodgers, C. S. (1998). Token resistance to sex: New perspectives on an old stereotype. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22 443-463.
Norris, J., & Cubbins, L. A. (1992). Dating, drinking, and rape: Effects of victim's and assailant's alcohol consumption on judgments of their behavior and traits. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 16 179-191.
Patton, W., & Mannison, M. (1995). Sexual coercion in dating situations among university students: Preliminary Australian data. Australian Journal of Psychology, 47 66-72.
Rapaport, K., & Burkhart, B. R. (1984). Personality and attitudinal characteristics of sexually coercive college males. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93 216-221.
Rose, S., & Frieze, I. H. (1993). Young singles´ contemporary dating scripts. Sex Roles, 28 499-509.
Ross, L. E., & Davis, A. C. (1996). Black–White college student attitudes and expectations in paying for dates. Sex Roles, 35 43-56.
Rozee, P. D. (1993). Forbidden or forgiven≟ Rape in cross-cultural perspective. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 17 499-514.
Rozee, P. D., & Koss, M. P. (2001). Rape: A century of resistance. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25 295-311.
Sheffield, C. J. (1989). Sexual terrorism. In J. Freeman (Ed.), Women: A feminist perspective (pp. 3-19). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
Smith, P., & Welchans, S. (2000). Peer education: Does focusing on male responsibility change sexual assault attitudes≟ Violence Against Women, 6 1255-1268.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (1996). Using multivariate statistics (3rd ed.). New York: HarperCollins.
Testa, M., & Livingston, J. A. (1999). Qualitative analysis of womenapos;s experiences of sexual aggression: Focus on the role of alcohol. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 23 573-589.
Ullman, S. E., Karabatsos, G., & Koss, M. P. (1999). Alcohol and sexual aggression in a national sample of college men. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 23 673-689.
Vicary, J. R., Klingaman, L. R., & Harkness, W. L. (1995). Risk factors associated with date rape and sexual assault of adolescent girls. Journal of Adolescence, 18 289-306.
Vinogradov, S., Dishotsky, N. I., Doty, A. K., & Tinklenberg, J. R. (1988). Patterns of behavior in adolescent rape. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 58 179-187.
White, J. W., Donat, P. L. N., & Bondurant, B. (2001). A developmental examination of violence against girls and women. In R. K. Unger (Ed.), Handbook of the psychology of women and gender (pp. 343-357). New York: Wiley.
White, J. W., & Humphrey, J. A. (1991). Young people's attitudes toward acquaintance rape. In A. Parrot & L. Bechhofer (Eds.), Acquaintance rape: The hidden crime (pp. 43-56). New York: Wiley.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Anderson, V.N., Simpson-Taylor, D. & Herrmann, D.J. Gender, Age, and Rape-Supportive Rules. Sex Roles 50, 77–90 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000011074.76248.3a
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000011074.76248.3a