Characteristics of victims and offenders in the phenomenon of group sexual assaults

Abstract

Currently, the number of sexual assaults carried out by more than one offender has increased significantly. This manuscript is focused on analyzing factors related to the victims, offenders, and crimes in cases of multiple sexual assault offences and evaluating the profile of both victim and offender. The search was conducted in the databases of ProQuest, Web of Science, and SCOPUS, according to the PRISMA SCR criteria. A total of 20 from 2254 articles were finally analyzed through a scoping review. General results show that the nature of violence and actions tend to be more shocking for victims, the age of offenders is lower, the implication of women as offenders is less common than men, the most reliable predictor of attribution of blame is the perception of consent, the presence of alcohol and drugs is common in perpetrators and victims, victims seem to be younger, and the psychophysical consequences suffered by victims often appears in a greater degree (e.g., physical injuries, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depressive symptoms, attribution of self-blame, self-incrimination, or maladaptive coping). Results are not clear regarding the use of weapons. More studies are needed to gain a deeper understanding and prevent victimization resulting from group sexual assaults