Female sexual coercion examined from a developmental criminology perspective

Based on the developmental criminology perspective, this study examines the association between the history of behaviour problems in childhood and adolescence and the use of sexually coercive behaviours by women. Sexual coercion refers to the use of strategies, which can be sometimes subtle, to have sexual contact without the consent of a partner (i.e., seduction, manipulation, intoxication and physical force). In addition, this study examines the association between the use of sexual coercion and physical aggression (e.g., hitting a partner with an object, pushing or shoving) and psychological aggression (e.g., yelling at a partner, keeping him from seeing friends) toward their actual partner (or their last partner) during a disagreement to document different coercive behaviours used by women. The data were collected from a sample of female heterosexual university students (n = 274; mean age, 22.9 years). The participants completed the Multidimensional Inventory of Development, Sex and Aggression (MIDSA; Knight, 2007). The findings suggest that women who had behaviour problems in childhood and adolescence tend to use sexual coercion to a greater extent than women without a history of behaviour problems. Moreover, the findings suggest that women who use sexual coercion are also prone to resort to psychological aggression toward a partner during a disagreement. These findings highlight the importance of taking into account the history of behaviour problems across the life-course in the development of theoretical models of female sexual coercion.