Revisiting the link between childhood sexual abuse and adult sexual aggression

Background: Childhood maltreatment poses a risk factor for adult sexual aggression among men. Objective: Efforts were made to examine links between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and sexual aggression after controlling variance associated with other forms of abuse. Participants and setting: This sample was comprised of men (n = 489) who completed a national survey regarding their history of possible abuse and/or sexual aggression. Methods: Maltreatment indices included CSA, parental and sibling physical abuse, exposure to domestic violence, peer bullying, and family emotional abuse. Self-report indicators of sexual frotteurism, coercion and rape were provided by the Sexual Experiences Survey Short Form Perpetration. Results: CSA links with the criterion indicators were relatively stronger (r = 0.36, d = 0.65,p < .001) than those found for non-sexual forms of abuse. CSA accounted for unshared variance in sexual aggression with these effects magnified by the addition of parental physical abuse (d = 2.1) or exposure to domestic violence (d = 2.2). The relative risks of prior acts of rape were elevated by CSA (RR = 4.39, p < .001), parental physical abuse (RR = 3.85, p < 0.001), exposure to domestic violence (RR = 3.81, p < .001), or sibling physical abuse (RR = 2.56, p = 0.007). These risks of completed rape were higher as well among respondents polyvictimized by two (RR = 4.92, p < .001) or more (RR = 8.94, p < 0.001) forms of abuse. Conclusions: Multiple forms of child maltreatment, particularly CSA, were strongly associated with adult sexual aggression in this sample of men from the general population.