Sexual Violence Among People Using Cyberporn

Sexual violence attitudes and behaviors involve complex interactions with rape myths acceptance (RMA) and coercive experiences. The study investigated the interactions between RMA, sexual coercive perpetration, and sexual coercive victimization, aiming to identify distinct subgroups based on their RMA, perpetration, and victimization scores and to determine predictive factors of group membership. A total of 1584 cyberporn consumers (aged 18–75 years; M = 33.18, SD = 10.84) residing in 47 different countries participated in an online survey. The majority of respondents were residents of the United States (45.6%) and the United Kingdom (26%). The survey comprised measures assessing rape myth acceptance (RMA), experiences of sexual violence, and a range of psychological, behavioral, and demographic variables. Data were analyzed using k-means clustering and logistic regression modeling. Results from K-mean clustering revealed two distinct groups: one displaying higher RMA and sexual violence perpetration scores, the other showing lower RMA but higher sexual victimization scores. Results from the logistic regression model indicate that gender (being male) is the strongest predictor of belonging to the first group (with higher RMA and sexual violence perpetration scores). In addition, individuals with high scores on compulsive cyberporn use, moral conflict regarding pornography use, dominance sexual motives, and heterosexual participants are more likely to belong to the first group. These patterns highlight how sexual violence experiences cluster differently among people using cyberporn and point to specific characteristics that could help identify individuals at risk of developing problematic attitudes toward sexual violence. Such findings could enhance the development of targeted prevention strategies.