Sexual Assault and Rape Perpetration by College Men The Role of the Big Five Personality Traits

A sample of 521 college men completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and an expanded version of the Sexual Experiences Survey to examine whether variation in the Big Five personality traits in a normal, college population provides any insight into the nature of sexual assault and rape perpetrators. Rape perpetrators reported lower levels of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness when compared to both sexual assault perpetrators and nonperpetrators, and lower levels of Extraversion when compared to nonperpetrators. Rape perpetrators also endorsed lower levels of tender-mindedness, excitement-seeking, warmth, positive emotions, feelings, altruism, competence, and dutifulness, and higher levels of vulnerability. Contrary to expectation, overall personality profiles followed remarkably comparable patterns for sexual assault and nonperpetrators, suggesting that sexual assault perpetrators were more similar to nonperpetrators than to rape perpetrators. Findings suggest that individuals who perpetrate sexual offenses, particularly rape, differ from nonperpetrators on dimensions of normal personality. Clinical and research implications are discussed.