we've chatted about the increased risk being an autistic woman of being sexually assaulted by female ADHD is in the research are also more likely to be sexually assaulted than neurotypical women different studies show differing rates however there is a general sort of consensus that women who are ADHDers are up to two times increased risk of sexual assault that's really interesting and you

know I think as we've heard it about probably a big element of that is the that kind of feeling different right you know being neurodivergent being different places you're at a high risk for all the reasons that we've talked about so if there's anything you know any kind of elements involved in that sort of tendency to be stimulation seeking a little bit less risk of us particularly in the hyperactive impulsive type ADHD that has been identified in in the literature some studies again

sort of show that it's not really the particular traits of autism or ADHD that place you are increased risk it's it's just more that general concept of of being different but then there are other studies that look into the hyperactivity impulsivity side of ADHD in terms of stimulation seeking and maybe when in that impulsive sort of stimulation seeking frame of mind maybe that making it difficult to read the cues and the red flags in the situation the other factor to in increasing vulnerability is your sexual orientation and gender identity so we know that people who are not heterosexual or who are gender diverse are also more vulnerable to assault in general but that includes sexual assault and a recent study from 2019 to 2021 showed that being autistic and being queer increased your risk of negative sexual experiences or assault by three times compared to heterosexual autistic people and it's quite interesting because actually being a heterosexual autistic woman you would actually fall in the minority in the autistic population because research actually shows that the majority of autistic people don't identify as heterosexual so in terms of being male as well men in general are less likely to be sexually assaulted than women and other vulnerable populations and this also holds true in the research around the autistic population so being an autistic woman you're seven times more likely to undergo negative sexual experiences or sexual assault than being an autistic male and I

believe as well that the research shows that perpetrators of sexual assault are far and far and away more likely to be men than women so I think and don't quote me on this but I think it's something like 96% of perpetrators of sexual assault are men and that holds true as well for men who are victims of sexual assault so men are less likely to be sexually assaulted and when they are they're more

likely to be sexually assaulted by other men so some

of the key signs of identifying an unsafe or predatory relationship or just an unsafe situation are things like power differentials being kind of separated from your support network emotional or coercive manipulation and Monique and I are going to go through some of those things today and just starting off with this idea of a power differential this is actually one of the key things that we see in any kind of sexually coercive or emotionally manipulative situation where one person holds the power and the outcome of the other person to know right what I mean by that is if you say note of this person what is the cost of that and do they actually hold the power of deciding what happens with that no so you know really obvious example of that is like a work situation right if someone is your boss or you know higher management etc. does saying no mean that you might lose your job or lose work opportunities or not be advanced to the next opportunity you're kind of consent or agreement sexually in that situation has nothing to do with desiring that sexually and everything to do with trying to avoid a negative outcome so that's one example other examples are things