Teens Are Sometimes the Aggressor in Sexual Assaults, Study Says

Written by Penny Arévalo

Some 9 percent of teens reported being the perpetrator in a sexual assault, reported a Southern California nonprofit this week.

The research was presented in a Monday edition of JAMA Pediatrics. To come up with its conclusions, the San Clemente-based Center for Innovative Public Health Research interviewed 1,058 teens and young adults, ages 14-21 years old.

The center found that:

• 9 percent of participants reported perpetrating some type of sexual violence.
• 8 percent kissed, touched or made someone else do something sexual knowing the other person didn't want to.
• 3 percent got someone to have sex when they knew the other person didn't want it.
• 3 percent attempted to rape someone.
• 2 percent completed a rape act.

The study found that boys became perpetrators at an earlier age (98 percent of those perpetrators who began at age 15 or younger) but that genders were on equal footing as culprits by age 18 or 19.

Additionally, exposure to sexually violent media may play some role in determining who ends up being an aggressor, the research suggests.

“Of the 9 percent who reported being perpetrators compared with the rest who weren't,[ Michele Ybarra, the center's president and director of research] says 17 percent of the perpetrators had looked at violent or X-rated material in the past year, compared with 3 percent of the non-perpetrators,” reported USA Today.

The paper noted the findings are more detailed yet reflect similar conclusions found in a 2011 report by the Centers for Disease Control.