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Can We Distinguish College Student Rapists From Nonstudent Rapists?  


Author:  Claire Samuelson.; Stacy Calhoun.


Source: Volume 19, Number 04, Summer 2018 , pp.96-99(4)




Campus Safety & Student Development

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Abstract: 

This article reviews and summarizes the most important current research and theory on college student rapists, and compares what is known about campus rate and rape in the general population. The literature reviewed in this article demonstrates that there are some differences between risk factors associated with college student rapists and nonstudent rapists at the relationship level, where peer networks tended to have a huge influence on rape perpetration in college samples. Alcohol use, exposure to certain types of adverse events during childhood, physical aggression, hostile masculinity, and sexual promiscuity appear to be implicated in rape perpetration across both groups. Overall, the factors identified in this review highlight the need for comprehensive prevention and intervention programs that target multiple risk factors at the individual, relationship, and community level. Additional research is needed to clarify and strengthen the empirical evidence for these risk factors in both college student and nonstudent samples as well as in other populations, such as females, the military, and the LGBT community.

Keywords: Student and non-student rape; Title IX

Affiliations:  1: UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs; 2: UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs.

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