Search results

The purpose of this paper is to review the status of biosignal measures of female sexual arousal with a view to examining the feasibility of such procedures in a forensic context. Although adult women represent the minority of sexual offenders, female perpetrated sexual abuse has been gaining increasing attention in the forensic psychological literature as criminal justice is confronted with female offending populations to a greater extent than previously recognised.

Psychological assessments of sex offenders have tended to be over-dependent on the use of self-report measures (i.e. an individual's appraisal and report of their emotional state of sexual arousal). There is a dearth of empirical knowledge concerning the psychophysiological assessment of female sexual interest in general and especially so for female sex offenders. Physiological measures are those that rely on directly observable physiological responses of the individual in order to identify patterns of sexual interest or arousal.

Because deviant sexual interest (in children or the use of violence) as assessed by penile plethysmography, has been established as one of the strongest predictors of recidivism in male sex offenders (and as a viable alternative to self-report methodologies), an analogue measurement approach for female sex offenders is desirable. This paper considers: first, theoretical problems (e.g. what does female physiological arousal mean in terms of sexual arousal/desire?; second, technical measurement problems (e.g. reactivity of the measure in within subject designs); and third, procedural/ethical problems (e.g. invasiveness of the application).

While a number of physiological assessment devices are considered in this paper, the paper discusses the labial photoplethysmograph as a promising method for female sexual offender populations.

Research on women who sexually abuse children is relatively scarce and tends to rely on small or unrepresentative convenience samples. The purpose of the current descriptive study is to examine characteristics female perpetrators of child sexual abuse using a large and contemporary dataset.

This study analyzes data collected by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, which is a census of all child protective services investigations or assessments conducted in all 50 states, as well as in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico from October 1, 2018, to September 30, 2019.

Only substantiated cases of sexual abuse were analyzed (n = 51,442 cases). Overall, 7.6% of the perpetrators were female, though the percentage of female perpetrators varied dramatically across states from less than 1% to over 36%. Female perpetrators tended to have younger victims than did male perpetrators. For children aged 2 or less, female perpetrators constituted approximately 20% of the abusers. Female perpetrators were more likely to victimize male and female children, whereas male perpetrators predominantly had female victims. More female perpetrators had a prior finding of maltreatment than did male perpetrators (32.3% vs 23.5%).

These findings add to the limited research base on female perpetrators of child sexual abuse and highlight avenues for further research into the differences between male and female sexual abusers.

This study is a replication of previous research but also provides additional novel findings.

The perpetration of sexual coercion is a complex public health problem associated with many kinds of deficits. The literature has shown that women also perpetrate sexually coercive behaviours. Recent work has suggested that this kind of behaviour could be explained by two distinct developmental pathways. However, this model does not allow the authors to identify how the individual processes social information in situ and may decide to resort to coercive behaviours. This study aimed to investigate the role of social information processing in women’s sexual coercion.

A sample of 125 French-speaking women from the general population were recruited to complete online questionnaires pertaining to dark triad personality traits, emotion abilities, alexithymia and antecedents of sexual coercion.

Results revealed that women with a history of sexual coercion had a significantly higher narcissistic traits score and more emotion regulation (ER) deficits than those without a history. For women with a history of sexual coercion perpetration, correlational analyses showed positive correlations, respectively, between psychopathic traits and alexithymia and between Machiavellianism and deficits in ER.

These results contribute to identifying the deficits relating to SIP in terms of sexual coercion perpetrated by women. Women with a history of sexual coercion perpetration appear to endorse more dark triad traits and to have ER issues. Certain level of these deficits could be a trigger and affect the SIP of women and increase the likelihood behaving in a sexually coercive manner.

The purpose of this paper is: first, to consider the reported problems in sexual function caused by psychotropic medication. Second, the complex undertaking of completing an assessment of sexual functioning. Third, the role of the pharmaceutical industry is explored. Finally, implications for future research and practice are suggested.

As a commentary this paper draws on the available literature to synthesise what is already known about the relationship between psychoactive substances and sexual functioning.

The limited literature and lack of research attention given to psychotropic induced sexual dysfunction limits our collective understanding of how many people are affected and in what way.

A greater focus on psychotropic induced sexual dysfunction is needed for people with a dual diagnosis. There has been an over reliance on single case studies and self-reporting. Large scale epidemiological investigation would help understand the extent and nature of the problem more fully. The demographic shift particularly in relation to an ageing population should be considered as psychotropic substances effect individuals in different ways as they grow older.

There is scope for workers to engage more fully in a conversation with clients about their experience of using psychotropic substances and how this has impacted their sexual functioning. The literature suggests that clients want to talk about this issue but staff are unwilling or unable to discuss the topic.

To the authors’ knowledge this is the first paper that draws on the available literature to explore the known and likely implications of psychotropic induced sexual dysfunction for this client group.

We are in the midst of a broad societal change in which women’s sexual problems are becoming increasingly medicalized, characterized as treatable medical conditions and defined and understood as a largely physiologically based disease, called “female sexual dysfunction” (FSD). When a condition is medicalized, a medical framework is used to understand it, and medical interventions are used to treat it. As part of this process, then, over the last several years, researchers and pharmaceutical companies have turned attention to developing medical treatments for FSD. As this medicalization continues to unfold with potentially important impacts, it is crucial that we understand the forces working to shape it.

In light of the recent shift in the US culture, this paper investigates the effectiveness of female sexual empowerment as ad appeal in the apparel industry.

Study 1 aimed to understand consumers' reactions to female sexual empowerment in ads in terms of their attitudes toward the ad, attitudes toward the brand and purchase intention. Study 2 investigated the role of gender in perceptions of female sexual empowerment in ads.

This research establishes that consumers display positive attitudes toward female sexual empowerment in the apparel advertisement. These attitudes positively influence attitudes toward the brand, which in turn improve purchase intention. These effects are stronger for women than men.

This research borrows from social power theory to reveal the impact of female sexual empowerment in ads in the apparel industry. Based on the theory of planned behavior, the findings also show that female sexual empowerment can have a positive impact on purchase intention through a serial mediation of attitude toward the ad and brand.

Marketers need to be aware of the impact of female sexual empowerment as ad appeal. Specifically, firms in the apparel industry could benefit from the positive effects of incorporating female sexual empowerment in their campaigns.

This research is the first to investigate the role of female sexual empowerment as ad appeal in improving consumers' responses to ads.

This paper aims to identify the preferences towards sex education and information from a religiously diverse sample of young people. The research builds on growing evidence towards religious affiliation having a strong influence on sexual attitudes and behaviour.

A total of 3,007 young people aged 15‐18 attending schools in London, UK, completed a cross‐sectional survey. The questionnaire identified preferred sexual health “topics”, preferences for where they would like to receive this education and who they thought would be the ideal person to deliver the information.

The largest religious group was Christian (34 per cent), followed by Muslim (24 per cent), Hindu (21 per cent), “Don't believe” (15 per cent) and “Other” (7 per cent). There were a number of similarities across the practising religious groups such as preferences for more information on sexually transmitted infections and how to make sex more satisfying. The data also showed significant differences across the religious groups, in particular between Hindus and Muslims, and their preferences towards the ideal person to deliver sex education. Hindus were notable for showing a higher preference towards someone of similar age, and also reporting the least preference for someone of the same religion. By contrast, Muslims reported a higher preference for religious compatibility on the premise that such a person could “identify with” their own religious and cultural beliefs.

Although derived from a sample that is not statistically representative of all young people, the findings demonstrate the potential and importance of being able to respond to the competing sex education preferences of religious groups. The forthcoming challenge is to research the ways in which this potential for sex education can be harnessed in a sensitive manner.

This paper is valuable in terms of establishing young people's preferences for information on sex and relationships, but less so in terms of identifying the types of sex education that are most beneficial. Indeed, it is likely that this paper will be of particular relevance to the “knowledge and understanding” element that is specified in this guidance.

Building on institutional theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for analyzing how consumer attitudes toward nudity in ads change as a result of modernization. Modernization is driven by the currents of pluralism and rationalism. The authors highlight the inherent contradiction of these two pillars and how this contradiction results in an inverted-U pattern in the relationship between level of modernization and consumer attitudes toward sex appeals. Consumers’ sexual permissiveness and their perceived insufficiency of regulatory control over sexual content in the mass media are the individual-level mediators of the two pillars.

The data were collected from three Chinese cities at different levels of modernization. A total of 811 college students from the three cities participated in the study.

The relationship between level of modernization and attitude favorability followed an inverted-U pattern. Female participants in the most modernized city possessed significantly less favorable attitudes to the ads than their male counterparts. Female and male participants were similar in their attitudes in the less modern cities. Sexual permissiveness mediated the relationship between modernization and male participants’ attitudes, but not with female participants’ attitudes. Perceived sufficiency of regulatory control over sexual content mediated the relationship between modernization and their attitudes among both male and female participants.

The paper makes an empirical contribution by testing the hypotheses regarding consumers responses to sex-appeal advertising with data collected from three Chinese cities at different levels of modernization. Additionally, it offers an institutional perspective on social attitude changes. Social attitude change is of great interest to researchers, but a systematic theoretical analysis is currently lacking.