Female hormone influences on sexual assaults in Northern Ireland from 2002 to 2009.

In Northern Ireland 1 in every 454 women of 13 years and over during 2008/09 reported to police that they had suffered a sexual assault. This study considered the possibility that women may be more likely to be victims of sexual assault during the fertile phase of their reproductive cycle. Evolutionary psychology suggests that women would have suffered more negative consequences if sexually assaulted when fertile and that specific psychological mechanisms may have evolved in women to combat male coercion.