Selected significant studies and publications from Kinsey Institute experts on sexual assault. For a full list of Kinsey Institute publications, visit our main Publications page.
Publications from the Kinsey Institute Sexual Assault Research Initiative
Sexual Consent
Artime, T. M., & Peterson, Z. D. (2015). Feelings of wantedness and consent during nonconsensual sex: Implications for posttraumatic cognitions. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 7(6), 570-577. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000047
Javidi, H., Maheux, A. J., Widman, L., Kamke, K., Choukas-Bradley, S., & Peterson, Z. D. (2020). Understanding adolescents’ attitudes toward affirmative consent. Journal of Sex Research, 57(9), 1100-1107. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2019.1711009
Jozkowski, K.N., Marcantonio, T.L., Willis, M., & Drouin, M. (2023). Does alcohol consumption influence people’s perceptions of their own and a drinking partner’s ability to consent to sexual behavior in a non-sexualized drinking context? Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 38(1-2), 128-155. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605221080149
Jozkowski, K. N., & Peterson, Z. D. (2013). College students and sexual consent: Unique insights. Journal of Sex Research, 50(6), 517-523. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2012.700739
Jozkowski, K. N., & Peterson, Z. D. (2014). Assessing the validity and reliability of the Perceptions of the Consent to Sex Scale. Journal of Sex Research, 51(6), 632-645. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2012.757282
Jozkowski K. N., Peterson, Z. D., Sanders, S. A., Dennis, B., & Reece, M. (2014). Gender differences in heterosexual college students’ conceptualizations and indicators of sexual consent: Implications for contemporary sexual assault prevention education. Journal of Sex Research, 51(8), 904-916. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2013.792326
Marcantonio, T. L., & Jozkowski, K. N. (2023) Do college students feel confident consenting to sex after consuming alcohol? Journal of American College Health, 71(5), 1604-1611. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2021.1943413
Marcantonio, T. L., & Jozkowski, K. N. (2023). College students’ definition of non-consent and sexual refusals in the age of affirmative consent initiatives. Sex Education, 23(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2021.2012446
Marcantonio, T.L., *O’Neil, A., & Jozkowski, K.N. (2022). Sexual consent cues among a sample of men who have sex with men in the United States. Psychology & Sexuality, 12(4) https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2021.1936141
Marcantonio, T. L., Valdez, D., & Jozkowski, K. N. (2022). An assessment of the cues college students interpret from a sexual partner to determine they are refusing. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(13-14) NP12352–NP12374. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260521997930
Marcotte, A. S., & Hille, J. J. (2021). Sexual violence and consent in the digital age. In A. Powell, A. Flynn, & L. Sugiura (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook on gendered violence and technology. Palgrave Macmillian, Cham.
Muehlenhard, C. L., Humphreys, T., Jozkowski, K. N., & Peterson, Z. D. (2016). The complexities of sexual consent among college students: A conceptual and empirical review. Journal of Sex Research, 53(4-5), 457-487. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2016.1146651
Peterson, Z. D., & Muehlenhard, C. L. (2007). Conceptualizing the "wantedness" of women's consensual and nonconsensual sexual experiences: Implications for how women label their experiences with rape. Journal of Sex Research, 44(1), 72-88. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490709336794
Richmond, K. P., & Peterson, Z. D. (2020). Perceived sex education and its association with consent attitudes, intentions, and communication. American Journal of Sexuality Education, 15(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/15546128.2019.1669512
Richmond, K., Levand, M. A., & Peterson, Z. D. (2023). Sexual consent is more than a simple “yes” or “no”: Ways to promote positive sexual consent attitudes and behaviors (pp. 164-174). In B. Tavener (Ed.), Sex education research: A look between the sheets. New York, NY: Routledge.
Willis, M., & Jozkowski, K.N. (2022). Sexual consent perceptions of a fictional vignette: A latent growth curve model. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 51, 797-809. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02048-y
Willis, M., & Jozkowski, K.N. (2022). Momentary versus retrospective sexual consent [erceptions. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 51, 811–819. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02182-7
Willis, M., Jozkowski, K. N., & Marcantonio, T. L. (2022). Testing the Internal Consent Scale for measurement invariance across women and men. Sex Roles, 86, 711-721. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-022-01287-0
Willis, M., *Marcantonio, T. L., Jozkowski, K. N., Humphreys, T., & Peterson, Z. D. (2021). Sexual consent at first-time intercourse: Retrospective reports from university students in Canada and the United States. International Journal of Sexual Health, 33(2), 109-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/19317611.2020.1862382
Victim Experience
Artime, T. M., McCallum, E., & Peterson, Z. D. (2014). Men’s acknowledgement of their sexual victimization experiences. Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 15(3), 313-323. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033376
Canan, S. N., Haus, K. R., Wiersma-Mosely, J. D., & Jozkowski, K. N. (2023). Familial support and reporting to their families: A two-sample study of LGBT sexual violence. LGBTQ+ Family: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 19(1), 54-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/27703371.2022.2137266
Canan, S.N., Kaplan, A., & Jozkowski, K.N. (2022). Comparing rates of sexual assault between panel quota and social media samples containing an overrepresentation of lesbian and bisexual women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37 (21-22), https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605211056027
Canan, S. N., Kaplan, A., & Jozkowski, K.N. (2022). A national U.S. study of 906 women’s qualitative accounts of their own reactions during sexual assault. Sexuality Research and Social Policy. Online ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-022-00772-1
Holloway, J., Klein, T., Wiersma-Mosley, J.D., Jozkowski, K. N., Terrell, A., & James, L. (2022). Experiences of sexual assault and rape among college students with disabilities. Journal of American College Health. Online ahead of print. http:///doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2022.2057190
Kern, S. G., & Peterson, Z. D. (2021). Negative cognitions following distressing unwanted sex: The role of coercion severity and perceived consent. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(9-10), 4381-4405. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518790603
Kern, S. G., Peterson, Z. D., Jozkowski, K. N., & Gerstein, E. (2022). Psychological symptoms associated with sexual victimization experiences: Differences as a function of the type and number of sexual acts and aggressive tactics. Journal of Sex Research. Online ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2130855
Marcotte, A. S., Gesselman, A. N., Fisher, H. E., & Garcia, J. R. (2021). Women’s and men’s reactions to receiving unsolicited genital images from men. Journal of Sex Research, 58(4), 512–521. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2020.1779171
Muehlenhard, C. L., Peterson, Z. D., Humphreys, T., & Jozkowski, K. N. (2017). Evaluating the one-in-five statistic: Women’s risk of sexual assault while in college. Journal of Sex Research, 54(4-5), 549-576. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1295014
Peterson, Z. D., Voller, E., Polusny, M., A., & Murdoch, M. (2011). Prevalence and consequences of adult sexual assault of men: Review of empirical findings and state of the literature. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.08.00
Risk Factors for Perpetration
Craig, A. N., Peterson, Z. D., Janssen, E., Goodrich, D., & Heiman, J. R. (2022). The impact of emotion regulation and sexual arousal on men’s sexual coercion likelihood. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(1-2), NP264-NP280. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260520915544
Fornicola, E. & Peterson, Z. D. (2022). An exploratory study of sexual coercion tactics as a function of perpetrator and victim gender. International Journal of Sexual Health, 34(3), 397-408. https://doi.org/10.1080/19317611.2022.2053027
Marcantonio, T. L., Jozkowski, K.N., Parrott, D. & Ham, L. S. (in press). Examining the moderating role of heavy drinking behaviors and precarious masculinity on sexual aggression among young adult men. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
Peterson, Z. D., Beagley, M. C., McCallum, E., & Artime, T. M. (2019). Sexual attitudes and behaviors among men who are victims, perpetrators, or both victims and perpetrators of adult sexual assault. Psychology of Violence, 9(2), 221-234. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000187
Peterson, Z. D., Janssen, E., Goodrich, D., Fortenberry, J. D., Hensel, D., & Heiman, J. R. (2018). Child sexual abuse and negative affect as shared risk factors for sexual aggression and HIV risky sex in heterosexual men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47(2), 465-480. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-017-1079-1
Peterson, Z. D., Janssen, E., Goodrich, D., & Heiman, J. R. (2014). Physiological reactivity in a community sample of sexually aggressive young men: A test of competing hypotheses. Aggressive Behavior, 40(2), 152-164. https://doi.org/ 10.1002/ab.21512
Preventing Sexual Assault
Ham, L. S., Hurd, L. E., Wolkowicz, N. R., Wiersma-Mosley, J. D., Bridges, A. J., & Jozkowski, K. N. (2022). Bystander intoxication and appraisal of sexual assault risk: A field study of emerging adult bargoers. Emerging Adulthood, 10, 1430-1439. https://doi.org/10.1177/21676968211005323
Jozkowski, K.N. (2022). Sexual consent and the prevention of sexual aggression. In Orchowski, L.M., & Berkowitz, A. (Eds). Engaging Boys and Men in Sexual Assault Prevention: Theory, Research, and Practice.
Marcantonio, T. L., Leone, R., O’Neil, A. M., & Jozkowski, K. N. (2023). A qualitative analysis of sexual and gender minority men’s bystander behaviors and barriers during male-to-male sexual violence experience. Psychology of Violence. Online ahead of print. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/vio0000475
Peterson. Z. D. (2018). Teen and young adult sexual desire and the importance of yes. In C. B. Travis & J. W. White (Eds.), APA Handbook on the Psychology of Women, Vol. I (pp. 273-295). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Wong, Y. J., McDermott, R., Zounlome, N., Klann, E., & Peterson, Z. D. (2022). Self-persuasion: An experimental evaluation of a sexual aggression prevention intervention for U.S. college men. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(5-6), 2037-2061. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260520936369
Evaluating Research Methodology
Canan, C.N., Cozzolino, L., Myers, J., & Jozkowski, K.N. (2022). Does gender inclusive language affect psychometric properties of the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale-Short Form? A two-sample validation study. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Online ahead of print https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605221106144
Giroux, S.A., Gesselman, A.N., Garcia, J.R., Luetke, M., & Rosenberg, M. (2020). The magnitude and potential impact of missing data in a sexual violence campus climate survey. Journal of American College Health, 68(5), 468-476. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2019.1577865ly
McCallum, E., & Peterson, Z. D. (2016). Women’s self-report of sexual victimization: An experimental examination of the influence of race, mode of inquiry, setting, and experimenter contact. Violence Against Women, 23(7), 850-870. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801216651338
Peterson, Z. D. (2023). Examining the psychometric properties of the Sexual Initiation Strategies Scale (SISS): A new self-report measure of sexual aggression perpetration history. Journal of Sex Research, 60(1), 91-113. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2130856
Strang E., & Peterson, Z. D. (2017). Unintentional misreporting on self-report measures of sexually aggressive behavior: An interview study. Journal of Sex Research, 54(8), 971-983. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1304519
Strang, E., & Peterson, Z. D. (2020). Use of a bogus pipeline to detect men’s intentional underreporting of their sexually aggressive behavior. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 35(1-2), 208-232. https://doi.org/10.1177/088626051668115
Strang, E. T., Peterson, Z. D., Hill, Y. N., & Heiman, J. R. (2013). Discrepant responding across self-report measures of men's coercive and aggressive sexual strategies. Journal of Sex Research, 50(5), 458-469. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2011.646393