Violence
Exposure to harsh parenting and pornography as explanations for males’ sexual coercion and females’ sexual victimization.
Open Access: No.
Abstract
Sexual violence against women is a major concern to researchers and policy makers, as well as to the general public. This study uses a sample of more than 2,000 college students to investigate the extent to which exposure to harsh parenting practices and sexually explicit materials contributes to perpetration and victimization. Findings indicate that frequent corporal punishment in the family of origin combined with consumption of pornographic materials increased the probability that males reported engaging in coercive sexual practices. For females, both frequent corporal punishment and exposure to paternal hostility combined with consumption of pornographic materials were associated with higher levels of reported sexual victimization. These results provide increased understanding of the impact of pornography use among a nonclinical sample, as well as the consequences of experiencing harsh corporal punishment in one’s family of origin, on the sexual victimization of females.
Relevance
The data from the study showed that “men who use pornography are more likely to be perpetrators of sexual coercion toward a female partner, and women who view pornography were more likely to be victims of sexual coercion by a male partner.”
Additionally, “men are at highest risk for engaging in sexually coercive behavior when they have experienced high exposure to both pornography and corporal punishment [as a child]. Our interpretation of this finding is that men are at high risk for utilizing sexually coercive tactics when consumption of pornography has instilled an image of women as sex objects and corporal punishment has taught them to use intimidation or manipulation to get their way.”
For women, “father hostility [during childhood] and consumption of pornography were associated with being the victim of sexual coercion. Further, the interaction of father hostility and consumption of pornography was significant.” More. importantly, “women who regularly consume pornography report high amounts of sexual victimization regardless of their level of exposure to father hostility. On the other hand, there was a linear relationship between exposure to father hostility and sexual victimization for women who rarely consume pornography. These findings indicate the power of pornography to increase a young woman’s risk for victimization, whereas father hostility is important in the absence of pornography, it has no effect when use of pornography is high. The messages inherent in sexually explicit materials appear to trump lessons acquired in the family of origin. Our results suggest that effects of pornography are so powerful that they can even outdo the socialization done within families.” Furthermore, “Past research has shown that exposure to pornography causes women to minimize rap…Our findings regarding a link between consumption of pornography and reports of sexual victimization might be seen as consistent with this research.”
Citation
Simons, L. G., Simons, R. L., Lei, M. K., & Sutton, T. E. (2012). Exposure to harsh parenting and pornography as explanations for males’ sexual coercion and females’ sexual victimization. Violence and victims, 27(3), 378–395. https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.27.3.378
