Expanding the Sexual Experiences Survey to Include Technology Facilitated Sexual Exploitation.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Criminology

Background:

• The Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) is a primary tool for assessing sexual assault among college students.
• Previous versions of the SES did not fully encompass cyber modalities of sexual exploitation.
• There is a growing need to understand technology-facilitated sexual exploitation (TFSE) within the college population.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and describe the development of a new module on Technology Facilitated Sexual Exploitation (TFSE) for the revised Sexual Experiences Survey (SES-V).
• To enhance the comprehensiveness and inclusiveness of sexual victimization measures by incorporating cyber modalities.
• To ensure researchers can assess both in-person and online forms of sexual exploitation.

Main Methods:

• Development of a 10-item module for the SES-V focusing on TFSE.
• The module covers seven domains: receipt of sexual materials, unwanted sexual comments, threatened/actual sharing of explicit images, sexual solicitation, and threatened/actual sharing of exploitation images.
• Respondents report frequency of experiences since age 14 using an 11-point scale (0 to 10+ times).

Main Results:

• The TFSE module comprises 10 items across seven distinct domains of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation.
• The revised SES-V, including the TFSE module, provides a more holistic measure of sexual victimization.
• The response format allows for detailed frequency reporting of TFSE experiences.

Conclusions:

• The integration of the TFSE module significantly broadens the scope of the SES-V.
• This revision allows for a more complete understanding of sexual exploitation, encompassing both traditional and technology-facilitated forms.
• The updated SES-V is better equipped to capture the multifaceted nature of sexual victimization in the digital age.