Faculty & Staff Scholarship 2019 Effects of the sex of the perpetrator on victims’ subsequent sexual behaviors and adulthood sexual orientations Sandra S. Stroebel Marshall University Stephen L. O'Keefe Marshall University Karen Griffee Concord University Karen V. Harper-Dorton West Virginia University Keith W. Beard Marshall University See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications Digital Commons Citation Stroebel, Sandra S.; O'Keefe, Stephen L.; Griffee, Karen; Harper-Dorton, Karen V.; Beard, Keith W.; Young, Debra H.; Swindell, Sam; Stroupe, Walter E.; Steele, Kerri; Lawhon, Megan; and Kuo, Shih-Ya, "Effects of the sex of the perpetrator on victims’ subsequent sexual behaviors and adulthood sexual orientations" (2019). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 2355. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/2355 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Research Repository @ WVU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty & Staff Scholarship by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors Sandra S. Stroebel, Stephen L. O'Keefe, Karen Griffee, Karen V. Harper-Dorton, Keith W. Beard, Debra H. Young, Sam Swindell, Walter E. Stroupe, Kerri Steele, Megan Lawhon, and Shih-Ya Kuo This article is available at The Research Repository @ WVU: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/ 2355 Stroebel et al., Cogent Psychology (2018), 5: 1564424 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2018.1564424 CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY & NEUROPSYCHOLOGY | RESEARCH ARTICLE Effects of the sex of the perpetrator on victims’ subsequent sexual behaviors and adulthood sexual orientations 1,2* ’ 2 3 4 Received: 26 July 2018 Sandra S. Stroebel , Stephen L. O Keefe , Karen Griffee , Karen V. Harper-Dorton , 2 5 6 7 7 Accepted: 26 December 2018 Keith W. Beard , Debra H. Young , Sam Swindell , Walter E. Stroupe , Kerri Steele , 2 7‡ First Published: 31 December 2018 Megan Lawhon and Shih-Ya Kuo *Corresponding author: Sandra S. Stroebel, Department of School Abstract: Data from 2,828 female and 1,556 male adult participants from a general Psychology, Marshall University population convenience sample were used to measure the effect of the sex of the Graduate College, 100 Angus E. Peyton Drive, South Charleston, WV perpetrator on the adult sexual orientation of the victims of child sexual abuse 25303-1600, USA E-mail: [email protected] (CSA) by adult male or female perpetrators and early incest with parents or early ‡ incest with siblings. Sexual behaviors with female perpetrators tended to promote current address: Department of Sociology, E-21, 3020 Avenida da an orientation toward sex with females and analogous behaviors with male per- Universidade, University of Macau, petrators tended to promote an orientation toward sex with males in victims of Taipa, Macao, China Email: [email protected] both sexes. Many forms of incest or CSA increased the likelihood the victims would Reviewing editor: subsequently engage in behaviors with other partners or begin masturbating using Luca Cerniglia, Uninettuno univer- adult male or female images. The subsequent early behaviors with other partners sity, Italy and masturbating using images of both male and female adults significantly Additional information is available at the end of the article enhanced or attenuated the conditioning resulting from interacting with the initial perpetrator. The victims’ adult sexual orientations could be statistically predicted using regression equations that took into account the sexual behaviors with both adult and underage partners and whether or not the participant had masturbated using images of male or female adults. The results were consistent with condition- ing and counter-conditioning theories. ABOUT THE AUTHORS PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT The eleven authors are all collaborating The effects of the sex of sexual perpetrators on researchers in an interdisciplinary multi- the adult sexual orientations of the victims were institutional collaborative study involving six investigated using data anonymously provided by different West Virginia campuses (an area 4,384 adult participants. The results were consis- somewhat inland near the eastern coast of the tent with the theory that the adult sexual orien- USA, usually referred to as “the mid-Atlantic tations of the participants were influenced early in region”) which resulted in collection of data life by interaction with the perpetrator. However, from the 4,384 participants in the interval the adult orientations were also modulated by between 2002 and 2018. the victims’ other early sexual experiences with male or female partners and sex-specific images that they had used when they masturbated. The results from our study were consistent with the theory that sexual orientations become fixed relatively early in life because they became established while the brain was still developing and malleable, a process known as critical period learning. Our results were consistent with the idea that that a person’s sexual orientation should not be use as the basis for discrimination because the sexual orientations of adults cannot be changed. © 2019 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. Page 1 of 43 Stroebel et al., Cogent Psychology (2018), 5: 1564424 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2018.1564424 Subjects: General Psychology; Cognitive Psychology; Counseling Psychology; Developmental Psychology Keywords: sexual orientation; incest; child sexual abuse; classical conditioning; operant conditioning; counter conditioning The potentially life-altering effect of child sexual abuse (CSA) on the adult sexual orientations of the CSA victims has been overlooked in some scientific publications showing a high incidence of adult same-sex orientations in victims of CSA by same-sex perpetrators (e.g., Finkelhor, 1984; Mendel, 1995; Rosencrans, 1997). For example, among the 93 victims of mother-daughter incest (MDI) in Rosencrans’ (1997) study, 36% self-identified as lesbian and another 10% self-identified as bisexual, yet the author stated there was no clear reason why people become heterosexual, lesbian, or bisexual (Rosencrans, 1997, p. 132). Finkelhor (1984, p. 195) and Mendel (1995, p. 169) both found significantly higher rates of adult same-sex behaviors or orientations in men who had been sexually abused by men, but both authors stated that their data were only correlational and insufficient to prove cause and effect. The alternative explanations provided by Finkelhor (1984) and Mendel (1995) for their findings amounted to blaming the victims for being attracted to, being attractive to, or being vulnerable to the perpetrators. However, others have reported significant effects of same-sex incest and same-sex CSA by adults on the adult orientations of the young victims (e.g., Alhamad, 2013; Beard et al., 2013; Goodwin & DiVasto, 1979, 1989; Johnson & Shrier, 1985; Kelly, Wood, Gonzalez, MacDonald, & Waterman, 2002, p. 431; O’Keefe et al., 2014; Stroebel et al., 2013b). The theories of Beard et al. (2015) would explain effects of the sex of the perpetrator on the adult sexual orientation of the victims. Beard et al. (2015) expanded upon similar theories of Kinsey, Reichert, Cauldwell, and Mozes (1955), Van Wyk and Geist (1984), and Storms (1980, 1981). The effect of CSA on the adult sexual orientations of the CSA victims can be predicted by the theory that adult sexual orientations are the result of conditioning from early overt and covert behaviors (such as masturbating using same-sex or opposite-sex images) interacting with early romantic attachment, critical period learning, and sexual imprinting (Beard et al., 2015; for reviews of conditioning studies in humans and animals, see; Hoffmann, 2012; Pfaus et al., 2012, respectively; for reviews of romantic attach- ment see Simpson & Rholes, 1998; for critical period learning see Desmarais, Roeber, Smith, & Pollak, 2012; Fox, Levitt, & Nelson, 2010; Fox & Rutter, 2010; Griffee et al., 2014a, 2014b; Uylings, 2006; for sexual imprinting see Bereczkei, Gyuris, & Weisfeld, 2004; Bereczkei, Hegedus, & Hajnal, 2009 ; Griffee et al., 2017; Irwin & Price, 1999; Seki, Ihara, & Aoki, 2012; Vukovic, Boothroyd, Meins, & Burt, 2015). Another concept incorporated into Beard et al.’s(2015) theories about the origin of adult sexual orientations was the idea that same-sex and opposite-sex sexual orientations were orthogonal variables that could co-exist to varying degrees within a single individual (Beard et al., 2015; Bickham et al., 2007; Klein, 1990; Whalen, Geary, & Johnson, 1990). According to this theory (Beard et al., 2015), the adult sexual orientations of victims of same-sex perpetrators would have a tendency to have a same-sex component that had either been reinforced by subsequent same-sex conditioning and romantic attachment or attenuated by subsequent opposite-sex con- ditioning and romantic attachment during the critical period for development of adult sexual orientations. A major reason for much of the scientific literature ignoring what should have been the obvious effect of CSA on the adult sexual orientations of CSA victims has been misunderstanding. The misunderstanding was created in response to the idea that society would be more accepting of same-sex orientations if people believed that sexual orientations were the result of genetics rather