Recent Seaver Alumna and Cindy Miller-Perrin Publish Article on Perceptions of Sexual Assault Based on Gender

Seaver College alumna Marissa Moore ('21) and distinguished professor of psychology Cindy Miller-Perrin recently published their article "Exploring the Effects of Perpetrator, Victim, and Participant Gender on Perceptions Related to Sexual Assault" in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma.

The study investigated male and female undergraduate college students' perceptions of sexual assault, seeking to understand how different genders perceived female-to-male and male-to-female sexual assaults.

"This research was inspired by my own trauma associated with sexual assault. Gender differences in perceptions of sexual assault is an incredibly important topic," Moore shares. "This study has been in the works for the last two years, and I'm so proud of the results we found."

The researchers share three important conclusions from the results. First, people are less likely to recognize the emotional trauma of male victims and are more sympathetic toward female perpetrators. Second, male college students are "less likely to perceive the severity of a sexual assault." Last, male and female college students perceive sexual assault differently: Women are more aware of the victim's potential emotional trauma and more consistent in their perception of perpetrator guilt. Men's perceptions of both emotional trauma on the victim and perpetrator guilt tend to depend much more on the gender of each.

To read more, visit the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma.