ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of what is known about the development of sexual aggression and focuses on sexual aggression against peer-aged or older female victims. It examines the development of sexual aggression over the life span, with a beginning before puberty and diminution into old age, and proposes a tripartite model of sexual arousal to rape. In the 1970s, a great deal of scientific investigation of sexual aggression used phallometric assessment, direct monitoring of sexual arousal, of men in response to verbal descriptions of a man and woman having consenting sex compared with a man forcing sexual intercourse on a woman. Classical conditioning has been invoked to explain deviant sexual arousal and behaviour. The male sex hormone testosterone plays a critical role in the production of male sexual behaviour. Abusive sexual behaviour is strongly influenced by the young offender’s family environment and their early sexual experiences, particularly the experience of child sexual abuse.
