This study included a methodological review of the literature that measured the magnitude of rape against AI/AN women. The authors compared the contextual characteristics of rape and sexual assault victimization among AI/AN women to African American and White women using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey from 1992 to 2005. Findings indicated that AI/AN women were twice as likely to be assaulted by offenders who were armed. AI/AN women were more likely to be hit, physically injured, and require medical care than African American and White women. The majority of assaults against AI/AN women were interracial. Assaults against AI/AN were more likely to be reported to the police, but less likely to result in arrest and conviction than African American and White women. To obtain more reliable estimates, future surveys should over sample AI/AN women.
These summaries were written by SVPEP staff and are based on original papers published within the last 6 years. The information available on this web site is provided as a public service and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the Arizona Department of Health Services, or the University of Arizona. To conduct an individual search or locate older articles use the Search Summary Database which includes over 600 articles related to sexual violence.
Racial & Ethnic Differences
Bachman, R., & Zaykowski, H. (2010). Estimating the magnitude of rape and sexual assault against American Indian and Alaskan Native (AIAN) women. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 43, 199-222.
The sample size of the NCVS was greatly reduced between 1992 and 2005 and the sample size of AI/AN was low making it difficult to make statistical comparisons.
Bletzer, K. V., & Koss, M. P. (2006). After-rape among three populations in the Southwest. Violence Against Women, 12, 5-29.
The way a person describes an experience can give insight to the meaning of the event in their life. This study included analysis of life narratives by 62 female sexual violence survivors from three ethnic/cultural groups of the Southwest: Mexican American, Native American (Southern Cheyenne), and Anglo. All the women were low income, and the mean age of each group was about 35 years. Most of the women knew the perpetrator. Women in all groups described their feelings after rape as anger, defilement, and degradation. Few women reported the rape to police or talked to a mental health worker. When describing their long-term strategy for dealing with the rape, Anglo women were more likely to discuss taking control or leaving the memory of the event behind them. Native American women talked more about forgetting the incident or blocking it out. Mexican American women were less likely to describe active efforts to return to a “normal” life and talked more about the continuing effects of the rape on their lives. All of the women described difficulty in interpersonal relationships and in trusting men. The researchers recommended designing post-rape interventions that are sensitive to differences in sociocultural backgrounds, and educating community members to support survivors.
Bryant-Davis, T., Chung, H., & Tillman, S. (2009). From the margins to the center. Ethnic minority women and the mental health effects of sexual assault. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 10, 330-357.
This review article examined sexual assault experiences of African America, Asian American, Latina, and Native American women. Prevalence, risk factors, mental health effects, barriers to disclosure, cultural beliefs, community attitudes, and social support are discussed. Authors concluded that minority women reported greater psychological impacts and barriers to obtaining protection orders and support services. Implications for policy, practice, and research are presented.
The studies reviewed for the article included varying rates and definitions of sexual assault.
Coker, A. L., Sanderson, M., Cantu, E., Huerta, D., & Fadden, M.K. (2008). Frequency and types of partner violence among Mexican American college women. Journal of American College Health, 56, 665-673.
Phone interviews were conducted with 149 women who were enrolled as college students near the Texas-Mexico border. The interviews were structured to assess physical violence (PV), battering, sexual violence (SV), stalking psychological abuse, and lifetime physical violence. Results indicated that 43% of women experienced some type of PV, 5.1% experienced SV, 19.7% were stalked and 30% experienced psychological abuse. Co-occurrence of violence was evident among those who reported physical or sexual violence. The probability of viewing violence as a problem increased with frequency of physical violence.
The sample size was small and women who participated in study may have been more or less likely to experience dating violence.
Decker, M. R., Raj, A., & Silverman, J. G. (2007). Sexual violence against adolescent girls: Influences of immigration and acculturation. Violence Against Women, 13, 498-513.
Researchers looked at data from Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Surveys conducted in 1999, 2001, and 2003 to identify associations between immigrant status, acculturation, and sexual assault among adolescent girls (N = 5,919). Fifteen percent of girls in the sample had experienced sexual violence (defined as “sexual contact against your will”). Immigrant girls had twice the risk for recurrent sexual violence compared with non-immigrant girls. Compared with the total sample (including other immigrants), immigrant girls aged 15 or younger and Black adolescent immigrant girls were at increased risk for recurrent sexual assault. Although researchers found significant sexual violence risks for all sexually active girls, sexually active immigrant Hispanic girls were at greater risk compared with nonimmigrant sexually active Hispanic girls. Recommendations for further studies included a break down of ethnic identification and country of origin (this study collapsed both); exploring the relationship of the perpetrators and victims; and separating and quantifying measures of consensual and non-consensual sexual activity.
Respondents may not have distinguished between having had intercourse voluntarily or through force or coercion, which may have resulted in girls who had only experienced abuse being labeled sexually active. Researchers were unable to identify the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim. Highest-risk adolescents may not have been in school and may not have been represented in the study.
Deer, S. (2005). Sovereignty of the soul: Exploring the intersection of rape law reform and federal Indian law. Suffolk University Law Review, 38, 455-466.
Rape and sexual assault rates are higher among Native Americans than any other ethnic or racial groups. The level of violence used is also higher. Native American women were struck more often during attacks, and physical injuries in addition to the rape were also more common. Weapons were used three times as often. Although most sexual assault occurs within races, perpetrators of sexual violence against Native people are more likely to be white. The high rates of violent crime in Indian Country may be directly related to jurisdictional problems and to the lack of resources for law enforcement and justice systems. For example, tribes do not have criminal jurisdiction over anyone who is not enrolled in a federally recognized tribe (arrests may be made but the courts cannot prosecute.) These factors create vulnerabilities that may be exploited by sexual offenders. The author attempted to reconstruct how tribes dealt with rape before colonization by reviewing oral traditions and belief systems as well as historical European-American documents. While varying by tribe, there is evidence that tribal women’s sexual autonomy was respected more than in European cultures, and that pre-colonization tribal justice systems considered rape a serious crime with established penalties. Recommendations for addressing sexual violence include considering the historic role of rape as a tool of conquest and how the deliberate weakening of tribal justice systems impacts accountability for perpetrators of rape.
This article is a review of existing laws and data, and does not present specific recommendations for practice.
Fife, R. S., Ebersole, C., Bigatti, S., Lane, K. A., & Brunner Huber, L. R. (2008). Assessment of the relationship of demographic and social factors with intimate partner violence (IPV) among Latinas in Indianapolis. Journal of Women’s Health, 17, 769-775.
One hundred Latinas (76% from Mexico) who attended health fairs, educational sessions, and community health centers were recruited to complete surveys to examine the prevalence, demographic factors, and behaviors associated with IPV. This exploratory, cross-sectional study: measured the prevalence of IPV in the Indianapolis Latino population and examined associations between demographic and other characteristics of IPV. Among the participants, 51% reported some form of IPV. Some of the forms of abuse that were reported were; yelling (38%), being followed (33%), having to ask permission to do things (18%), harassment (18%), and pushing/shoving/slapping (11%). Women who reported IPV, 71% reported 1 to 3 forms of abuse. Alcohol use by the woman or partner was found to be most significantly associated with IPV.
Sample contained a small number of women in one community, who attended public events, and were willing to speak about IPV. The sample also had missing data, only 75% answered all questions. An association does not mean that alcohol was the cause of IPV.
Fitzgerald, M.M., Danielson, C.K., Saunders, B., & Kilpatrick, D.G. (2007).Youth victimization: Implications for prevention, intervention, and public policy. The Prevention Researcher, 14, 3-7.
The authors review national prevalence rates of youth victimization, including: sexual, emotional or physical abuse; witnessing domestic or community violence; property crime; and excessive punishment. They note gender and race/ethnicity differences in prevalence rates as well as mental health effects. Specific recommendations for assessing risk and resiliency factors as well as screening for victimization in clinical settings are given. The authors discuss the importance of targeted interventions for specific groups, and urge adoption of an ecological model. Finally, the authors discuss how public and organizational policies can help decrease the impact of victimization and increase the availability of supportive services for youth and their families.
Hanson, R., Kievit, L., Saunders, B., Smith, D., Kilpatrick, D., Resnick, H., & Ruggiero, K. (2003). Correlates of adolescent reports of sexual assault: Findings from the National Survey of Adolescents. Child Maltreatment, 8, 261-272.
Another purpose of this study was to determine whether correlates of sexual abuse disclosure differed by gender and race/ethnicity. Data from 4,023 adolescents was obtained through a national probability telephone survey. Measures included penetration and nonpenetration sexual assault, relationship to the perpetrator, degree of life threat, physical injury, victim substance use, disclosure of sexual assault to anyone, and knowledge of any formal reports made regarding the sexual assault. Results indicated that 8.1% of respondent adolescents had experienced a sexual assault. Regarding disclosure, about two thirds of the victims reported that they had told someone else about the sexual assault and about one third of these instances had also been formally reported. For all adolescent victims, use of substances did not reduce the likelihood of disclosure, and victims assaulted by a relative were the most likely to disclose. Girls and European Americans were more likely to disclose than boys and African Americans, respectively. However, among European Americans, gender did not influence disclosure. On the other hand, African American females were 7 times more likely to disclose than African American males were. Also, for girls and European Americans only, sustaining an injury during the sexual assault reduced the likelihood of disclosure. While, for African Americans penetration assault was associated with disclosure, life threat was associated with disclosure for European Americans. Due to their low rates of disclosure, these results indicate that careful assessment of sexual assault among African American children and boys may be particularly important. Additional research investigating correlates of sexual assault for other ethnic groups (e.g., Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans) is also suggested.
Hines, D. (2007). Predictors of sexual coercion against women and men: A multilevel, multinational study of university students. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, 403-422.
This study had several goals: to investigate rates of forced and verbal sexual coercion and sexual revictimization around the world, association between sexual coercion and adversarial sexual beliefs, and association between childhood sexual abuse and current victimization of sexual aggression in both men and women. Information was gathered from the International Dating Violence Study where questionnaires were completed by students in a classroom setting at various universities around the world. The findings suggest that adversarial beliefs about romantic relationships were associated with sexual coercion for both genders. The sites with high rates of hostile beliefs about the opposite sex observed a higher number of reports of verbal and forced sexual coercion victimization.
This was a correlation study based on a sample of college/university women and men.
Hokoda, A., Galvan, D. B., Malcarne, V. L., Castenda, D. M., & Ulloa, E. M. (2007). An exploratory study examining teen dating violence, acculturation, and acculturative stress in Mexican-American adolescents. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 14, 33-49.
This exploratory study examined Mexican-American high school students’ experiences with and attitudes towards dating violence and the relationship they may have with acculturation and acculturative stress. Eighty-two students from a large urban area located near the US and Mexican border participated in the study. Results indicated that those that were medium acculturated, compared to low and high levels, reported less tolerant attitudes towards male dating violence (psychological, physical, sexual) and female dating violence (psychological and sexual). Acculturation was measured by language use and preference. Higher levels of acculturative stressors were related to more tolerant attitudes and higher rates of perpetration of dating violence. The results may be helpful in designing dating violence intervention programs for Mexican immigrant teens that may include information about the process of acculturation, social problem solving, and stress management skills for acculturative stressors.
Small sample size and limited ability to make causal inferences.
Kelly, P. J., Lesser, J., Cheng, A., Oscos-Sanchez, M., Martinez, E., Pineda, D., & Mancha, J. (2010). A prospective randomized controlled trial of an interpersonal violence prevention program with a Mexican American community. Family & Community Health, 33, 207-215.
This study examined the effects of El Joven Noble, a gender-based social bond theory intervention, on violence related attitudes among 31 students in a predominately Mexican American community in South Texas. El Joven Noble was originally designed for high-risk males in Latino communities in California. The curriculum consists of 10 sessions implemented weekly during an after school program. Findings indicated no significant differences between the intervention and control groups. High-risk students in the intervention group reported changes in non-violence self-efficacy scores post intervention and 3 months post intervention. El Joven Noble showed secondary violence prevention effects, but not primary prevention effects. Community participation helps programs address discrimination, historical context of the impact of oppression, and intergenerational trauma.
Students had negative attitudes towards gangs and high violence self-efficacy at baseline which makes it difficult to show changes as a result of the intervention. Adaptation of the program may not be suitable for other racial/ethnic communities.
Lehavot, K., Walters, K. L., & Simoni, J. M. (2009). Abuse, mastery, and health among lesbian, bisexual, and two-spirit American Indians and Alaska Native women. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 15, 275-284.
This study examined the association between sexual and physical abuse and health outcomes among 152 urban two-spirit American Indian (AI) and Alaska Native (AN) women. A woman’s actual or perceived control over life circumstances (mastery) was used as a mediator of the association. The data was collected from a larger study, the HONOR Project across 7 cities: New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco/Oakland, Tulsa/Oklahoma City, Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Seattle/Tacoma. Findings indicated that 78% of the women had experienced lifetime physical assault and 85% had experienced lifetime sexual assault. Seventy-six percent of women reported sexual contact before age 18. Physical and sexual assault, childhood trauma, and partner violence were associated with worse mental and physical health. Women who experienced sexual assault by both an acquaintance and stranger had worse mental health outcomes than women who reported assault by one type of perpetrator. Prevention and health promotion interventions for Native communities should incorporate mastery in a culturally and socially appropriate manner.
A causal relationship between abuse and health outcomes was not established.
McFarlane, J., Malecha, A., Watson, K., Gist, J., Batten, E., Hall, I. et al. (2005). Intimate partner sexual assault against women: Frequency, health consequences, and treatment outcomes. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 105, 99-108.
Women who had requested orders of protection against abusive partners participated in this descriptive study (N=148). Sixty-eight percent (n=100) reported being sexually assaulted at least once by their partner. Women who were sexually assaulted multiple times reported significantly higher levels of gynecologic problems, including sexually transmitted diseases, than non-sexually assaulted women. Higher PTSD scores were found in women who were sexually assaulted than among those who were only physically assaulted. For either type of assault Latina/Hispanic women had higher PTSD scores than African American or White women. Women were less likely to be reassaulted if they told someone about the assault, contacted police, applied for protection orders, or received medical care. The researchers recommend the adoption of cooperative models that increase victims’ ability to access justice and medical services.
Participants were recruited from a group of women who had applied for protective orders, and may differ from women who do not seek assistance from the justice system. The study relied on self-reports, which are subject to recall errors and omissions.
Moracco, K. E., Runyan, C. W., Bowling, J. M., & Earp, J. A. (2007). Women's experiences with violence: A national study. Women's Health Issues, 17, 3-12.
During 1997, telephone interviews were conducted with 1800 US women aged 18 years and over. Women were asked about stalking behaviors, physical assault, and sexual assault that they had experienced both during their adult lives and during the previous year. Data were weighted to account for demographic variations. Consistent with other national surveys such as the National Violence Against Women Survey, about one in six women reported having been sexually assaulted, and the perpetrator was three times more likely to be someone known to them than a stranger. Racial/ethnic differences were also similar to other national findings, with Asian American and white women being less likely to experience violence than all other groups. Other risk factors for having experienced sexual violence included being less than 55 years old (young women aged 18-24 reported the most violence), living in a household that received public assistance, and being lesbian/bisexual.
The sample was restricted to women living in households with telephones. Because the study was cross-sectional, the causal relationship of risk factors to types of violence experienced cannot be explored.
Nguyen, H. V., Kaysen, D., Dillworth, T. M., Brajcich, M., & Larimer, M. E. (2010). Incapacitated rape and alcohol use in White and Asian American College Women. Violence Against Women, 16, 919-933.
This study examined ethnicity as a moderator of the relationship between incapacitated rape (IR) and outcomes of alcohol use among 5,565 Asian and White female college students. Findings indicated a significant association between ethnicity and sexual assault for alcohol related consequences and consumption. Among women who had not experienced IR, Asian women reported fewer consequences of alcohol use and lower levels of consumption than White women. When Asian and White women consumed similar amounts of alcohol, Asian women experienced more consequences of alcohol than White women. Prevention and treatment programs should focus on cultural attitudes about sexual assault, adaptive help-seeking behaviors, social support, and coping strategies. Prevention programs should focus on protective behavioral strategies to reduce high risk drinking.
This study focused on college-aged Asian and White women and may not be generalizable to other age groups. It did not examine subgroups of Asian women.
Waugh, I. M. (2010). Examining the sexual harassment experiences of Mexican immigrant farmworking women. Violence Against Women, 16, 237-261.
This article examined sexual harassment experiences among 150 Mexican immigrant female farm workers in California. The study focused on factors that increased women’s risk of sexual harassment, how female farm worker’s experiences may differ from other groups of women, and how power and agency limit response options are specifically discussed. Results indicated that 97% of the women reported sexual harassment from coworkers and superiors and of those, 53% reported physical and verbal advances, gross sexual imposition, and rape. Twenty-four percent of women who reported harassment also reported sexual coercion or on-the-job blackmail. Women reported a variety of responses that ranged from confronting to ignoring the perpetrator and several physical and psychological health effects. Female farm workers should be made aware of sexual harassment policies and their right to work in safe environments. Perpetrators, contractors, and agricultural companies must be held accountable for their actions.
The sample consisted of women of Mexican descent in California and may not be generalizable to women from other countries of origin or women in working in other regions of the United States.