The Dominance of Individualism and Positivism: Trends of Theorizing Sexual Victimization/Perpetration in Higher Education, 2013–2022

This article reports the results of a study specifically designed to examine the types of theories of, and theoretically informed explanations for, sexual victimization/perpetration in higher education that have been published in peer-reviewed journals from 2013 to 2022. The sample consists of 292 articles in ten violence-related periodicals listed in the Social Sciences Citation Index, and sexual assault was the dependent variable in all the studies presented in them. Ninety-seven percent of the studies are solely quantitative, 44% are purely empirical studies with no theoretical frameworks, and 56% were informed by a theory. Not surprisingly, our analyses found that of the articles guided by theories, 68% were informed by individualist-positivist perspectives that prioritize micro and individualistic factors, while only 30% were guided by feminist theories that give precedence to patriarchy and masculinity.