Latent structure of sexual harassment and sexually coercive behaviours

A woman is raped approximately every two minutes (National Crime Victimization Survey, 2020), and 2.5% of women in England and Wales said that they had been a victim of a sexual offence (including attempted offences) in the previous 12 months (Home Office, 2013). The #MeToo movement has shown that sexual violence is not only defined by rape or sexual assault, and that it can also include other forms such as sexual harassment and sexual coercion (Longpré et al., 2022).

Sexual harassment, one of the most prevalent forms of sexual violence, is defined as unwanted non-verbal, verbal, or physical behaviours with a sexual element, which aim to create an intimidating, humiliating, degrading, hostile, and/or offensive environment (Pina & Gannon, 2012). Alternatively, sexual coercion is the use of more aggressive tactics, such as using pressure or physical force against an unwilling partner (Beckett & Longpré, 2022). Recent studies supported the existence of a continuum of sexual violence, named the Agonistic Continuum, which ranges from sexual harassment at its lower end, escalating to sexual coercion and to rape, and at its highest extreme, sexual sadism/sexual murder (Knight et al., 2013; Longpré et al., 2020).

In this talk, a series of studies conducted on samples of university students, general population and offending populations will be presented. The latent structure of the Agonistic Continuum, supported by Taxometric, Factor Analyses and latent structure analysis, will be explained. Furthermore, the nomological network of the Agonistic Continuum will be presented. This talk expands on our understanding of the characteristics and motivations of sexual harassment and sexually coercive behaviours, enabling the design of effective prevention programmes in the general population and directing future research.