1 in 3 college men say they would 'forcefully have sex' if there was no penalty

According to a recent study, over a third of college men said that they would force a woman to have sex if nobody would ever know and there wouldn't be any consequences.

The researchers interviewed 86 heterosexual, mostly white, males, over 18, who filled out multiple questionaires that guaged their sexual attitudes and behaviors toward women, the Discovery reported.

The study's aim was to dig beneath the label of "rapist" to see what young men's attitudes were toward forceful and coercive sexual behaviors.

The study's authors wrote that behaviorally descriptive survey items (i.e., Have you ever coerced somebody to intercourse by holding them down?) versus labeling survey items (i.e., Have you ever raped somebody?) will yield different responses, in that more men will admit to sexually coercive behaviors and more women will self-report victimization when behavioral descriptions are used (Koss 1998) instead of labels.

They further wrote that indeed, some men will endorse items asking whether they have used force to obtain intercourse, but will deny having raped a woman.

They concluded that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to sexual assault prevention.

They added that men who are primarily motivated by negative, hostile affect toward women and who conceptualize their own intentions and behaviors as rape are unlikely to benefit from the large group primary prevention efforts done as part of college outreach efforts.

There might be some hope, though, for the men who endorse the use of force, but don't see themselves as rapists, as long as the programs can avoid alienating them.

The study is published in the journal Violence and Gender.