Risk Factors

"Certain factors can increase the risk for SV. However, the presence of these factors does not mean that SV will occur. Risk factors for perpetration include being male; having friends that are sexually aggressive; witnessing or experiencing violence as a child; alcohol or drug use; and being exposed to social norms, or shared beliefs, that support sexual violence. It is important to understand what factors protect people or put them at risk for experiencing or perpetrating violence. They help identify where prevention efforts need to be focused. Risk factors do not cause violence. The presence of a risk factor does not mean that a person will always experience violence. Victims are never responsible for the harm inflicted upon them. A risk factor is a characteristic that increases the likelihood of a person becoming a victim or perpetrator of violence. A protective factor is a characteristic that decreases the likelihood of a person becoming a victim or perpetrator of violence because it provides a buffer against risk. A combination of individual, relational, community, and societal factors contribute to the risk of becoming a perpetrator of SV. Individual risk factors include alcohol and drug use, coercive sexual fantasies, impulsive and antisocial tendencies, preference for impersonal sex, hostility towards women, hypermasculinity, childhood history of sexual and physical abuse, and witnessing family violence as a child. Relationship factors include association with sexually aggressive and delinquent peers, a family environment characterized by physical violence and few resources, a strong patriarchal relationship or familial environment, and an emotionally unsupportive familial environment. Community factors include lack of employment opportunities, lack of institutional support from police and judicial systems, general tolerance of sexual violence within the community, and weak community sanctions against sexual violence perpetrators. Societal factors include poverty; societal norms that support sexual violence; societal norms that support male superiority and sexual entitlement; societal norms that maintain women's inferiority and sexual submissiveness; weak laws and policies related to gender equity; and high tolerance levels of crime and other forms of violence."