Read the article! Nicole Ostrow, the Star Tribune, October 7, 2013
Read the report! Prevalence Rates of Male and Female Sexual Violence Perpetrators in a National Sample of Adolescents, M Ybarra & K Mitchell in JAMA Pediatrics
About one in 10 young people have committed some
type of sexual violence during their life, according to one of the first
studies to look at young male and female perpetrators on a national
level.
Research published Monday in JAMA
Pediatrics found about 10 percent of those 21 years old and younger said
they committed an act of coercive sexual contact, including kissing or
touching someone against the other person’s will, persuading someone to
have sex with them when the person didn’t want to, attempted rape and
completed rape.
Monday’s study is one of the first to
provide national estimates of young perpetrators of sexual violence. Researchers analyzed data from 1,058
people ages 14 to 21 who took part in the Growing Up With Media study
from 2006 to 2012.
Perpetrators had more exposure to
television, music, games and Internet sites that depict sexual and
violent situations than those who didn’t commit the crimes, the authors
found. About 40 percent of those who committed sexual violence did so
for the first time by age 16, the paper said. Boys started younger but
by ages 18 and 19, the number of male and female perpetrators were about
equal. Females tended to have older victims, while males had younger
victims, the researchers said.