Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to identify and briefly discuss those situational, dispositional, and life course variables that increase the probability of sexually coercive behavior. We focus on male perpetrators, who commit the great majority of acts of sexual violence. We do not include the literature on predicting the risk of recidivism of offenders who have been adjudicated for sexual crimes or any discussion of modern evolutionary explanations of ultimate causation. Finally, because those who target children as sexual victims differ substantially in etiology, disposition, risk factors, and life course from those who sexually coerce peers and women (e.g., Bard et al., 1987; Knight & Thornton, 2007), we focus only on the risk factors for the latter. The intention of the chapter is practical. The strategy of trying to reduce sexually aggressive behavior only by treating and managing offenders is costly to survivors and to society and has yielded at best modest efficacy (e.g., Hanson et al., 2002). Consequently, society must pursue the more promising approaches to reducing sexually coercive behavior that lie in prevention and early intervention. Such strategies require well-founded models of etiology and developmental course to guide the fashioning of interventions and policies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)