Legitimation of sexual violence: an exploratory study in students of social education
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Attitudes and beliefs about sexual violence (SV) play a significant role in its early detection, as well as on help-seeking behavior among adult victims of this form of violence. The primary concern of this study was to explore students’ conceptualisation of SV. In this sense, this study aims to: (i) describe the prevalence of abusive sexual behaviours experienced and committed by students; (ii) analyse the degree of legitimation of SV depending on students’ sociodemographic characteristics and students' perception as victims/ aggressors. This poster presents analyses of cross-sectional data collected in a convenience sample of 151 students, of both genders, who are graduating in Social Education in a Portuguese public Higher Education Institution of the northern and interior region of Portugal. Data were gathered by a questionnaire consisting of a sociodemographic data (gender, age and academic year), students’ perception as victims/ aggressors and indicators of victimization/perpetration of SV. It was also used a Portuguese version of the Scale of Beliefs about Sexual Violence (ECVS; Martins, Machado, Abrunhosa & Manita, 2012) that measures the degree to which a person sustains false information about SV. Results confirm that few students perceive themselves as a victim (6,6%) or as an aggressor (0,7%) of SV, despite the higher percentage of one or more indicators of SV victimization (47%)/perpetration (9,9%). In general, there is a low tolerance/acceptance of SV, particularly among females, students aged between 18 and 21 years and those attending the second year of the degree course. Also, students who perceive themselves as victims have fewer stereotyped representations of SV. The implications of these findings are discussed considering the potential to the training of Social Educators.
