NCJ Number
222816
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 14 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2008 Pages: 542-562
Date Published
May 2008
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study examined a woman's clearly articulated sexual boundary and its impact on college students' abilities to detect when a woman wants her date to stop making sexual advances.
Abstract
Male and female participants listened to an audio recording of date rape vignettes and signaled when the man should stop making sexual advances relative to participants in the no-boundary condition. Participants who heard a discussion including a sexual boundary before intimate physical contact occurred displayed significantly shorter latencies to identify the inappropriateness of the man's behavior. No significant differences were observed between male or female participants. In contrast to the control condition, where the woman in the vignette attempted to establish sexual boundaries following the occurrence of sexual contact, participants in the experimental condition were exposed to a vignette involving a woman who discussed with her date her sexual boundaries before engaging in any sexual contact. The discussion clearly established at the beginning of the interaction the woman's rules concerning sexual behavior. The man was provided with plainly defined verbal consent for specific levels of sexual contact. Perhaps by making the contingencies regarding acceptable sexual behaviors salient before any physical intimacy took place, the misperceptions of consent and nonconsent behaviors decreased. This notion is consistent with previous research that shows that when a woman provides a “no” and then continues to have physical contact with a man, her sexual boundary may be undermined. It appears to be beneficial for both men and women to effectively communicate sexual boundaries before sexual contact. Further research could evaluate men's initiations of sexual boundary discussions to determine if talks prompted by men have an influence on the perception of female sexual intent and sexually aggressive male behaviors. Data were collected from 166 students (80 men and 88 women) from a public university in the southeastern United States. Tables, references