HETEROSEXUAL AND HOMOSEXUAL COERCION, SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND SEXUAL ROLES IN MEDICAL-STUDENTS

Rape has been conceptualized on a dimension of normal male behavior. T he Koss and Oros (1982) study used a questionnaire that allowed men to respond only as sexual aggressors of women, and women only as victims of men. Medical students' responses to a modified questionnaire, in w hich both sexes reported being aggressors and/or victims, revealed tha t relatively comparable proportions of men and women were victims of c oercive experiences: 35% of women and 30% of men experiencing constant physical attempts to have sexual activity. Forms of coercion not invo lving threat or use of force were more common, more exclusively hetero sexual, and carried out by more equivalent percentages of men and wome n. 15% of women and 12% of men felt initially coerced into sexual acti vity but then enjoyed it. Threat or use of force to attempt to or to o btain intercourse were employed by 4% of men and 2% of women and exper ienced by 5% of both sexes. Half the male victims and female aggressor s and a quarter of the male aggressors and female victims who reported such coercion stated it was homosexual The ratio of homosexual/hetero sexual feelings reported by male, but not female, students correlated with the degree of the homosexual coercion they both carried out and e xperienced The degree of sexual coercion carried out by men and women correlated with their masculine sex role scores, suggesting, if the di mensional concept of rape is valid that rape is on a continuum with ma sculine rather than male behaviors.