Predicting Rape Events: The Influence of Intimate Partner Violence History, Condom Use Resistance, and Heavy Drinking

Abstract

Sexual aggression perpetration is a public health epidemic, and burgeoning research aims to delineate risk factors for individuals who perpetrate completed rape. The current study investigated physical and psychological intimate partner violence (IPV) history, coercive condom use resistance (CUR), and heavy episodic drinking (HED) as prospective risk factors for rape events. Young adult men (N = 430) ages 21-30 completed background measures as well as follow-up assessments regarding rape events perpetrated over the course of a three-month follow-up period. Negative binomial regression with log link function was utilized to examine whether these risk factors interacted to prospectively predict completed rape. There was a significant interaction between physical IPV and HED predicting completed rape; men with high HED and greater physical IPV histories perpetrated more completed rapes during follow-up. Moreover, psychological IPV and coercive CUR interacted to predict completed rape such that men with greater coercive CUR and psychological IPV histories perpetrated more completed rapes throughout the follow-up period. Findings suggest targets for intervention efforts and highlight the need to understand the topography of different forms of aggression perpetration.