The role of the dark triad and emotion regulation in women’ sexual coercion: a social information processing perspective
Journal of Criminal Psychology
ISSN: 2009-3829
Article publication date: 17 July 2023
Issue publication date: 5 January 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The perpetration of sexual coercion is a complex public health problem associated with many kinds of deficits. The literature has shown that women also perpetrate sexually coercive behaviours. Recent work has suggested that this kind of behaviour could be explained by two distinct developmental pathways. However, this model does not allow the authors to identify how the individual processes social information in situ and may decide to resort to coercive behaviours. This study aimed to investigate the role of social information processing in women’s sexual coercion.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 125 French-speaking women from the general population were recruited to complete online questionnaires pertaining to dark triad personality traits, emotion abilities, alexithymia and antecedents of sexual coercion.
Findings
Results revealed that women with a history of sexual coercion had a significantly higher narcissistic traits score and more emotion regulation (ER) deficits than those without a history. For women with a history of sexual coercion perpetration, correlational analyses showed positive correlations, respectively, between psychopathic traits and alexithymia and between Machiavellianism and deficits in ER.
Originality/value
These results contribute to identifying the deficits relating to SIP in terms of sexual coercion perpetrated by women. Women with a history of sexual coercion perpetration appear to endorse more dark triad traits and to have ER issues. Certain level of these deficits could be a trigger and affect the SIP of women and increase the likelihood behaving in a sexually coercive manner.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this study.
Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to research, authorship and/or publication of this study.
Citation
Escarguel, M., Benbouriche, M., Tibbels, S. and Przygodzki-Lionet, N. (2024), "The role of the dark triad and emotion regulation in women’ sexual coercion: a social information processing perspective", Journal of Criminal Psychology, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 38-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCP-03-2023-0017
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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