Far too many women around the world are enduring the real-life horror of abuse — including sexual violence — at the hands of men who ought to be their companions, co-workers, confidantes and greatest supporters.
The consequences of even a single sexual assault are enduring, let alone the kind of chronic abuse victimization far too many endure.
Understanding, therefore, why violence against women happens — and what conditions make it more or less likely — should be among the most important societal questions to investigate.
I first began asking this after an unforgettably sad experience as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Northeastern Brazil, when we passed by a home where a woman had just, the night prior, been killed by her husband.
How could anything like this take place, I wondered, especially at the hands not of strangers, but of men most responsible to nurture, love and protect?
Several years ago, I had a chance to lead a team of researchers to go deeper in gathering published studies around the world that examined risk factors for sexual violence — from incidents of one-time rape and sexual assault, to more enduring patterns of sexual violence occurring within toxic dating relationships and abusive marriages (often under the umbrella of what’s called “family violence,” “domestic violence” or “intimate partner violence”).
This spring, Deseret News supported me in completing this expansive review of 500 abuse studies (285 adult, 215 youth). I share summary findings for the first time here (and here), with full reports including all references set for public release later this summer.
The studies referenced here span the globe, uniting insights from dedicated research teams doing incredible work in many countries and across a wide variety of settings (campuses, workplaces and homes).
Our team paid careful attention to risk factors for both sexual perpetration and victimization. Although we also noted occasional studies of sexual violence against men, the focus here is on the much more extensive problem of victimization against women.
As reflected below, there’s no simple cause of any of this, accurately described by one research team in Kenya recently as a problem that is “complex and multifaceted.” The CDC likewise advocated nearly two decades ago for building a comprehensive ecological model that “offers a framework for understanding the complex interplay of individual, relationship, social, political, cultural and environmental factors that influence sexual violence."
In 2014, however, other CDC researchers admitted, “Rates of sexual violence remain alarmingly high, and we still know very little about how to prevent it.”
The good news is that if we can capture a clearer picture of what’s really making this kind of tragic violence against women more likely, we can then take more effective steps to eradicate this evil which terrorizes so many women (of all ages and backgrounds) around the world today.
10 trends that decrease vulnerability
1. Improving the family economic level
Women growing up in difficult economic circumstances (insufficient family income, lack of employment, food insecurity) are more vulnerable to being victimized sexually — while men growing up in these same circumstances are more vulnerable to becoming sexually aggressive.
The opposite is also true in homes where economic needs are met (sufficient income, employment and food), consistently showing men and women in these families being protected from being drawn into sexual violence and other kinds of abuse too.
While having paid work outside the home acts as a preventive measure against sexual violence for some women, many studies in developing countries find the opposite — with formal employment sometimes heightening a risk of victimization for women, especially those with isolated jobs or which involve night shifts.
2. Increasing family educational opportunities
Studies around the world show women to be more vulnerable to sexual violence when they have little to no education. Men are also more likely to be sexually aggressive when they are illiterate, or have a lower level of formal education.
The opposite is again true, with women who have more years of education frequently less likely to be victimized and men with more education are also less likely to perpetrate sexual violence.
There are exceptions to this protective effect from education since some campus environments appear to raise the risk of sexual violence. And there are some parts of the world where a woman with more education than her husband somehow raises her risk of being victimized.
3. Living in marriage that is healthy
Women who are divorced, cohabiting or living alone are all at greater risk for sexual violence, according to different studies. None of this means married women are automatically safer, however, with so much depending on how cooperative and happy a marriage is, along with how much serious conflict is involved.
A number of studies confirm that how well a couple is able to work together in decision-making has an influence on their risk for different kinds of abuse. And unsurprisingly, when higher levels of control exist in a marriage, there is simultaneously a greater likelihood for all types of abuse. Men with less empathy and more hostility generally are also more likely to perpetrate violence of various kinds.
4. Receiving additional support with children and their associated stress
According to multiple studies, the presence of children in a home increases a mother’s risk level for abuse victimization generally — likely due to the added stress this places upon marriages and families.
Whether due to marital conflict, economic struggles, mental health challenges or additional children, families enduring heightened levels of stress clearly appear more vulnerable to different kinds of abuse.
Even the addition of a single child raises victimization risk, with studies also showing heightened vulnerability to abuse at the hands of an intimate partner during pregnancy. Sadly, women unable to have children face additional victimization risk. And in some parts of the world, having a daughter instead of a son likewise increases the risk of victimization.
The quality of parenting clearly makes a difference for what a child’s future safety will be as adults. A home life that is chaotic, disrupted, impoverished, with parents who are uneducated, addicted or divorced, raises the risk of eventual victimization for that child as they become an adult.
5. Avoiding drug and alcohol abuse
Few factors have received more consistent empirical verification than the impact of alcohol and drugs — not only on men who are significantly more likely to perpetrate sexually under the influence of substances, but also on women who are more likely to be sexually victimized under the influence.
As Italian researchers summarize, “alcohol can impair cognition, distort reality, increase aggression, and ease drug-facilitated sexual assault.”
Drug use can also “render a victim incapable of defending themselves or unable to avoid dangerous situations where victimization may occur” according to U.S. researchers.
This is especially true with heavy, regular substance use, which U.S. researchers in one campus study called “one factor that has been found in most studies to be associated with higher risk for sexual aggression.”
There appears to be even higher vulnerability when both a man and woman are under the influence, with one U.S. research team concluding, “the amount of alcohol consumed by both perpetrators and victims also predicted the amount of aggression and type of sexual assault.”
If you grew up in a home with alcohol or were exposed to alcohol and other substances at an early age, there’s also evidence of increased risk for sexual violence as an adult. Alcohol is also one major reason sexual violence is often higher in college, especially campuses with a cultural acceptance of heavy drinking as a social norm.
6. Avoiding risky sexual behavior
When women have sexual experiences earlier in life, they are at greater risk of sexual violence — especially when that involves casual “hook-ups” with multiple people. One research team called this “simple probability,” in that “multiplying partners would increase the chances of being involved with a violent partner.”
Repeatedly, studies also confirm that higher numbers of sexual partners increase the likelihood of men perpetrating sexual violence.
Cohabitation and extramarital affairs likewise raise the risk of sexual violence, as does overall impulsivity. For example, gambling is associated with increased risk of both perpetration and victimization.
In the other direction, stronger impulse control and overall self-control unsurprisingly protect against sexual violence.
Relatedly, over 100 studies have linked compulsive pornography use to sexual aggression, coercion and violence against women and children. For instance, one 2015 analysis examining 22 studies from 7 different countries concluded that pornography consumption was “associated with sexual aggression in the United States and internationally, among males and females, and in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.”
7. Healing from mental health challenges
It’s expected that victims would experience depression and anxiety in the difficult aftermath of abuse. There’s also evidence that women who experience mental health problems are at greater, additional risk of being victimized sexually — as are those who endure traumatic effects from any previous abuse.
Studies also find that men with different mental health challenges, including depression and bipolar disorder, can sometimes be at greater risk of perpetration. And there are cases in which medical treatments appear to have prompted sexual aggression among male patients that was “wholly alien to their character and antithetical to their prior behavior,” in the words of one psychiatrist.
In terms of victimization, Canadian researchers also note several studies confirming that “psychotropic drug abuse” can sometimes alter women’s judgment and “keep them from recognizing and avoiding dangerous situations and defending themselves against an attack.”
8. Healing from adverse childhood experiences and young adult aggression
The atmosphere of one’s family upbringing can influence risk for sexual victimization and perpetration as an adult. Studies highlight lower levels of earlier “family cohesion” and “emotional expressiveness in the family” as predicting later abuse.
Witnessing as a child significant fighting between a mother and father also raises later victimization risk — especially if that conflict is unresolved and leads to separation and divorce. Any type of family disruption and residential displacement increases the risk of sexual victimization and exploitation. This risk rises to an entirely new level, however, for children who have witnessed parents hurting each other physically, emotionally or sexually.
When those children get hurt emotionally or physically, they experience even more risk for victimization or perpetration when they grow up. This is especially true when children are sexually victimized, with German researchers observing that “sexual abuse in childhood increases the odds of experiencing and engaging in sexual aggression in adolescence and young adulthood.”
This has been known for decades now, with U.S. researchers stating back in 1998, “childhood sexual abuse consistently predicted sexual re-victimization in adulthood.”
That risk rises even more when multiple kinds of early abuse are involved, with Swedish researchers reporting that exposure to different kinds of abuse in childhood was “found to be the most potent risk factor for sexual violence in adulthood among adult women.”
When women experience sexual violence as a young adult — be that from a boyfriend or stranger — they are also more likely to be victimized again (even repeatedly).
9. Growing social support and decreasing isolation
Unsurprisingly, those women who report experiencing the support of friends, family and surrounding community are less likely to be victimized sexually.
Without question, men and women embedded within supportive relationships at both an extended family and community level are more protected against all forms of abuse.
But a lot depends on the attitudes of surrounding relationships. It’s clearly no great protection to be surrounded by in-laws or other neighbors who see violence in a marriage as “sometimes justified.” And being around friends who also experience sexual violence or normalize any kind of abuse also measurably raises the risk of victimization for women.
Clearly, not all communities have equal levels of awareness of this problem. That is even more apparent when we look back through different time periods in history when global awareness of this danger was far less.
One pattern that seems especially clear empirically is that anytime a woman is isolated she is more at risk. This includes women who: (1) communicate less with their own family of origin, (2) live at a residence with no other adults, (3) have only a transient place of residence, (4) live in a rented house (especially by themselves), (5) work a night shift, and (6) experience barriers to healthcare access.
Women who are refugees or immigrants also experience elevated risk of victimization, especially when a language barrier exists or when they are undocumented. And ethnic and gender minorities often experience heightened risk, likely due to associated social isolation or economic disadvantage.
This may also explain why women (and children) living in a “post-conflict” zone or areas that have recently endured natural disasters experience heightened risk for sexual victimization.
10. Deepening religious community and faith commitment
Religious affiliation, identification and participation is protective against sexual violence according to studies in various countries. Another set of studies finds a lack of religious affiliation to be associated with more likelihood of sexual perpetration among men and sexual victimization among women.
Victims often described in studies how leaders and fellow congregants helped them get away from earlier abuse and begin to find healing. This is not always true, of course – with certain attitudes held by people of faith sometimes functioning as a barrier to healing and safety. Indeed, another set of studies point towards less healthy religious attitudes that leave women at greater risk for different kinds of abuse.
For instance, when men in a community are more controlling and domineering, studies show an increased likelihood of abuse. There’s also evidence that sincere, “intrinsic” religious practice and conviction among men and women functions as a more powerful protector against sexual violence and other abuse, while more superficial, “extrinsic” religious conviction simply does not.
Multiple, overlapping risk factors
Certainly, none of the above factors operates in a vacuum independent of each other — with interlinkages among all ten factors. For instance, people of faith are also more likely to avoid drug/alcohol dependency, experience nurturing social support and be happily married (while also having more children).
The research makes it clear that perpetrators focus on places where any vulnerability exists. For instance, women of younger age and much older age are both more likely to be victimized, as are those with reduced cognitive or physical capacity due to disability or prior victimization.
Many of these themes have been identified in other attempts to survey available risk factors, such as a CDC analysis from 2016, which touched on most of the above patterns, but overlooked the potentially protective role of faith and religiosity.
This national and international data also align with demographic data collected locally in Utah, showing higher vulnerability to sexual violence among women who are homeless, with lower socioeconomic status, using drugs or alcohol, in minority groups, younger, or experiencing some kind of physical or mental impairments.
While this broad array of variables involved in increasing (or decreasing) the risk for sexual violence can seem overwhelming, I believe it can be invaluable to know that women who are less educated, divorced, addicted (or with partners addicted to alcohol or pornography) are more likely to experience sexual violence — especially if they experience inadequate financial support, limited healthy community commitments, and a dearth of higher meaning and spiritual purpose in life.
It’s equally important to know that men who are less educated, financially struggling, addicted, isolated, emotionally unhealthy, promiscuous and spiritually disengaged, are also more likely to perpetrate sexually on vulnerable women.
There’s also protective power in more fully appreciating that women and men who are better off economically, have good educational experiences, and are embedded within both healthy marriages and supportive communities are less vulnerable to sexual violence. This is doubly true if they also avoid substance abuse and habits of risky, casual sexual relations with multiple people, while nourishing a healthy spiritual foundation.
Special thanks to Laura Whitney, Odessa Taylor, Jacob Orse, and Brigham Powelson for helping to gather and sift through published studies, and to Diana Gourley for helping edit the review. In addition to recent support from Deseret News, the author expresses thanks to Public Square Magazine for initial funding for the project.
If you or someone you love has experienced sexual assault of any kind and need additional support in the U.S., contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline (1-800-656-HOPE)- with virtual and text-based options available. This is a confidential networking service in the U.S. helping connect victims with local agencies who can offer therapeutic support across the country. Similar kinds of hotlines exist in many countries around the world.