by Leora N. Rosen and Lee Martin

About the authors: Leora N. Rosen is a research social scientist in the Department of Military Psychiatry, Division of Neuropsychiatry, at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Lee Martin is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Maryland.

In recent years, a considerable literature has developed linking sexually assaultive behavior among men to negative attitudes toward women, acceptance of violence, and tolerant attitudes toward rape and sexual harassment. These patterns of association have been examined among incarcerated sex offenders, nonoffending men in the community, and college students who have admitted to engaging in sexually coercive, assaultive, or harassing behaviors.

Most of these studies have examined attitudes and personality characteristics as predictors of behavior or measures of tendency toward a behavior. The outcome variables have generally...