JavaScript is not activated in your browser. Please activate JavaScript to use the whole functionality of this website! Many now interpret touch, gestures, and words as sexual assault, which they might have thought of as a private matter between two people before. And recognizing sexual violence is a prerequisite for preventing it. Between and , 1, students from universities in Potsdam and Berlin participated in this study. Sexual violence is alarmingly common.
But what are the risk factors for becoming either a victim or a perpetrator? And how can both be prevented? The study participants were 22 years old on average and mostly came from the region. The psychologists recruited their study participants mainly through mailing lists of the University of Potsdam and Berlin universities. Participants were subsequently randomly assigned to a control and a treatment group, without knowing which group they were in.
In both groups, the sexual scripts and a number of other aspects of thought and behavior regarding sexual encounters were measured to enable comparisons with the data collected post treatment. Afterwards, the treatment group worked through six prevention modules over the course of six weeks, while the control group received no treatment.
At the time of the pre-treatment measurement, the participants were asked whether they had experienced or perpetrated sexual aggression since the age of Later, they were asked whether they had experienced sexual encounters or forced others into them since the last data wave.
Specifically, this meant: Had the participants experienced touch, kissing, or intercourse against their will or forced another person into it? Had there been verbal coercion, such as spreading rumors or threatening to end the relationship? Had a person been unable to defend themselves because they had been under the influence of alcohol?
