To Resist or Not to Resist?

Abstract

Circumstances under which a sexual assault takes place and how these circumstances affect offenders’ reactions to victim resistance are not well understood. Previous studies have not thoroughly examined the interactions that take place between situational factors and resistance. Using a combination of logistic regression and Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) analyses, we examine victim, situational, and crime characteristics of 426 sexual assaults involving victim resistance to determine which of these factors increase the likelihood of offender violence. Findings suggest that violence is affected by both the attack strategy employed by the offender and the type of resistance by the victim, along with several other qualifying factors.