ADHD and Sexual Victimization

ADHD is associated with a 41% increased risk of experiencing unwanted sexual contact, and an 85% increased risk of being raped. A frequent misconception is that the most common form of sexual victimization is “blitz rape,” where strangers jump out of bushes to violently attack a victim. The reality is that most sexual assaults take place among acquaintances and tend to be less violent than the typical stranger rape. This article explains the latest 2020 scientific evidence for these sad statistics.

A frequent misconception is that the most common form of sexual victimization is “blitz rape,” where strangers jump out of bushes to violently attack a victim. The reality is that most sexual assaults take place among acquaintances and tend to be less violent than the typical stranger rape.

Given this, frequently, the situations surrounding sexual assaults may not initially be that different from prototypical social situations, and risk cues are not as obvious as they are in stranger rapes (Nurius & Norris, 1996).

Thus, during this phase, it is very important that individuals attend to what often are more subtle cues that a situation is moving from that of a social to a dangerous one.

In the second phase, an individual does a cost-benefit analysis of the various response options that are available and the potential response outcomes if one responds in a particular way (Vitek et al., 2018).

Although it has been well-documented that more assertive and active responding is more likely to lead to assault avoidance than passive strategies (Gidycz & Dardis, 2014), during this phase, there are various barriers to responding assertively (Vitek et al., 2018).

Such barriers include emotional barriers such as self-blame or sadness, which can impede active resisting, whereas feelings of self-confidence or efficacy can lead to more active and effective responding.

Based on the cognitive ecological model, one can speculate that individuals with ADHD may be prone to sexual victimization, owing to the ways in which their symptoms create risk. One of the hallmark symptom domains of ADHD is difficulty paying attention.

Many symptoms of inattention (e.g., fail to give close attention to details, make careless mistakes, not seeming to listen when being spoken to directly, and easily distracted by extraneous stimuli) would appear prime candidates for reducing the likelihood that important social cues (which can be quite subtle in the cases of sexual assault) are received, such as clues that someone may intend to harm them.

Missing these context cues no doubt impairs one’s ability to assess for risk in social situations and taking action to reduce this risk. Thus, within the context of the cognitive ecological model of sexual victimization, ADHD would seem to be a prime risk variable for sexual victimization.

Interestingly, like Snyder (2015), we found that ADHD was uniquely associated with attempted rape or rape victimization even when accounting for common risk factors (i.e., sex, alcohol abuse, illicit drug use, or child abuse).

In fact, the only additional risk factor that was uniquely associated with attempted rape or rape victimization was sex, with women being at greater risk of attempted rape or rape victimization than men.

Women are routinely found to be victims of sexual assault more often than men in the literature (e.g., Smith et al., 2018). Thus, being diagnosed with ADHD as a child was uniquely associated with experiencing sexual assault victimization; not just an indicator of adults who were victims owing to other risk factors.

In the event these findings are replicated, it would suggest that when treating emerging adults who have ADHD, it might be particularly useful to highlight the characteristics of potential perpetrators in an attempt to prevent future sexual assault victimization.

At the same time, although those with ADHD and without ADHD did not differ on most of the resistance strategies, it is noteworthy that those with ADHD utilized crying more in response to the attack than those without ADHD.

Given that crying, a passive strategy, is one of the least effective methods for avoiding a sexual assault (Gidycz & Dardis, 2014), it is important to address barriers that those with ADHD may experience to responding more assertively.

Three studies have also evaluated ADHD as a risk factor for sexual victimization, which can occur within and outside of romantic relationships.

White and Buehler (2012) showed that college women reporting elevated symptoms of ADHD in childhood were more likely to report sexual victimization after the age of 13 years than women with low ADHD symptoms.

Snyder (2015) reported that college women reporting prior diagnoses of ADHD were significantly more likely to experience any type of sexual victimization (16.5%) than women without ADHD histories (10.3%).

More specifically, nearly 15% of female students with ADHD histories reported they experienced unwanted sexual touching compared with 9% of female students without ADHD histories (p < .05, odds ratio [OR] = 1.41), and 9% of female students with ADHD histories reported they had been raped compared with 4% of female students without ADHD histories (p < .05, OR = 1.85)

References

Wymbs, B. T., & Gidycz, C. A. (2020). Examining Link Between Childhood ADHD and Sexual Assault Victimization. Journal of attention disorders, 1087054720923750. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054720923750