Sexual Experiences Survey - Short Form Perpetration (SES-SFP) | Measurement Instrument Database for the Social Sciences

Author of Tool:

Koss, M.P. and the SES Collaboration

Key references:

Koss, M.P. Abbey, A., Campbell, R., Cook, S., Norris, J., Testa, M., Ullman, S., West, C., & White, J. (2006). The Sexual Experiences Short Form Perpetration (SES-SFP). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona.

Koss, M.P., Abbey, A., Campbell, R., Cook, S; Norris, J., Testa, C., Ullman, S., West, C., & White, J. (2007). Revising the SES: A collaborative process to improve assessment of sexual aggression and victimization. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 31, 357-370.

Primary use / Purpose:

The Sexual Experiences Survey Short Form Perpetration (SES-SFP) is a brief 10-item measure assessing sexual aggression/coercion strategies or perpetration using a gender-neutral approach. The individual items of the SES-SFP provide a measure of the frequency of each unwanted sexual act and/or the rate of each tactic to bring about unwanted sex. Scores on this measure attempt to categorize respondents into the following; non-perpetrator, sexual contact, attempted coercion, coercion, attempted rape, and rape. The Sexual Experiences Surveys were designed for epidemiology, criminal justice, and psychotherapeutic treatment applications and settings.

Background:

All versions of the revised Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) measure behaviour that meets legal definitions of various sex crimes, with the exception of acts accomplished by verbal coercion not involving threats of physical harm. The acts accomplished by coercion are certainly on the sexual assault spectrum and they are of interest in many fields and settings, but it is important to clearly understand that they are not crimes. Feminist legal scholars argue that these acts should be forms of attempted rape and rape and recommend changing statutory definitions of rape as a goal for advocate policy reform.