Abusive men put female partners at greater sexual risk, study finds

Abusive and controlling men are more likely to put their female partners at sexual risk, and the level of that risk escalates along with the abusive behavior, a UW study found. Published in the in July, the study looked at patterns of risky sexual behavior among heterosexual men aged 18 to 25, including some who self-reported using abusive and/or controlling behaviors in their relationships and others who didn't. The research found that men who were physically and sexually abusive to women were more likely than non-abusive men to engage in behaviors that exposed them and their partners to sexually transmitted infections, such as avoiding condoms and not being monogamous. Conversely, men who were not physically or sexually abusive, but who used controlling behavior such as dictating who their partners could see or what they wore, were no more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors than men who were not controlling. The researchers conducted the study to better understand the link between heterosexual relationship violence, which affects women disproportionately, and sexual risk, since heterosexual sex remains the primary means of HIV transmission to women. Prior research has focused on the link between relationship violence and sexual risk among women, but relatively little is known about the specific sexual behaviors of the men in those relationships, lead author said. "There's surprisingly little research about heterosexual men in the sexual health field," said Casey, an associate professor of social work at the .