Sexual Harassment and Abuse in Young Adulthood

Running head: SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ABUSE IN YOUNG ADULTHOOD
SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ABUSE IN YOUNG ADULTHOOD
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1SOCIOLOGY- SOCIAL WORK
Introduction
Sexual assault is identified as a broad-based term which entails a broad range of sexual
victimizations which includes rape and other forms of sexual abuses. According to Finkelhor et
al. (2014), the age of consent for sex tends to vary from state to state. Sexual abuse is identified
as a common form of violence and is thus is one of the biggest form of fear for young adults. The
following paper will focus on underlying factors related to sexual assault in young adulthood and
multinational framework which will be applied to this issue and its major causes and relevant
interventions.
Discussion
The Problem
It has been noted that young adults who have been sexually abused frequently exhibit
various forms of anxiety or apprehensive behavioural patterns. These youths furthermore tend to
be hyper vigilant and continuously observing their surroundings for threats to their protection
and wellbeing and thus have learned to suppress their emotions. Felson and Cundiff (2014) have
noted that the severity of sexual abuse tends to play a decisive role in the level of apprehension
experienced by young adults. Young adults experiencing sexually violent or abusive
environments are likely to be oversensitive to their surroundings. Reports of Finkelhor et al.
(2014) have revealed that young men indicate that around 17% of men are sexually abused by
age 18, whereas on the other hand, over 45% women before the age of 25 tend to encounter acts
of sexual assault.
However, on the other hand, college or university goers especially females who
encounter severe rate of homelessness are found be at higher risk of sexual assault in comparison
to the general population (Yung, 2015). Furthermore, Tyler and Melander (2015) in their studies
have mentioned that acts regrading sexual abuse amongst young adult women engaged in
universities have been the highest in the general population to be victims of sexual assault
especially women who have already experienced such abuses in the early stage of their
adolescent period. Moreover, comprehensive studies of Sabina and Ho (2014) have noted that
greater degree of severity encountered by the adolescent results young adults at the later stage
experience the greater the risk of naive re-victimization. Drawing relevance to the above factors,
Yung (2015) has noted that adolescent victims of rape or attempted rape have specifically
reported to be around 4.5 times more prone towards severely assault.
Multidimensional Framework Applied to young adults experiencing sexual abuse
Effects of Sexual Abuse on Biophysical dimension of victims
The multidimensional framework of Affect Control Theory has predicted that when
deflection tends to be high, interactants show greater degree of suffering and consequently
redefine a characteristic of the event in order to draw relevance of the critical event experienced.
Fox, Nobles and Fisher (2016) have noted that Affect Control Theory chiefly illustrates the way
unexpected or traumatic experiences like sexual abuse have created impediments in the cultural
understandings of behaviours as well as identities of the sexually abused young women adults,