According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), incidents of in-flight sexual assaults have increased in recent years, however, data and details of sexual misconduct that occur on commercial flights are difficult to obtain, particularly in situations that involve non-forcible sexual offenses. Therefore, it is unknown if sexual misconduct is increasing, or if people are reporting incidents more than they have in the past. It is also challenging to assess airline responses to sexual misconduct since there is no universal policy that clearly lays out what crew ought to do in situations that involve sexual victimization. Regardless of these shortcomings, this phenomenon is timely and worthy of exploration given the noticeable lack of criminological literature on the topic. Fortunately, in-flight sexual victimization has been given more widespread public attention by way of media reports and the #MeToo movement, and the federal government has created a task force to investigate allegations and give policy recommendations when sexual offenses occur. In light of the progressive changes that have arisen in recent years to address sexual misconduct, this exploratory study aims to highlight the poorly reported and ill-regulated problem of sexual victimization that occurs during air travel through a content analysis of online media reports to describe risk factors for in-flight victimization. Findings indicate that the physical and social characteristics of commercial flights present potential risk factors for both forcible and non-forcible sexual victimization. Practical and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.

根据联邦调查局（FBI）的调查，近年来机上性侵犯事件有所增加，但是，很难获得在商业航班上发生的性行为不当的数据和详细信息，尤其是在涉及非强制性情况下性犯罪。因此，尚不清楚性行为是否正在增加，或者人们所报告的事件是否比过去更多。评估航空公司对性不端行为的反应也具有挑战性，因为没有一项普遍的政策明确规定机组人员在涉及性受害情况下应采取的行动。尽管有这些缺点，但鉴于该主题的犯罪学文献明显缺乏，这种现象是及时的，值得探索。幸好，通过媒体报道和#MeToo运动，飞行中的性受害问题得到了公众的广泛关注，联邦政府成立了一个工作组来调查指控，并在发生性犯罪时提出政策建议。鉴于近年来为解决性不端行为而发生的渐进式变化，此探索性研究旨在通过在线媒体报道的内容分析来描述在空中旅行期间发生的不良报道和管制不善的性受害问题，以描述风险飞行中受害的因素。调查结果表明，商业航班的身体和社会特征是强迫性和非强迫性性受害的潜在危险因素。讨论了这些结果的实践意义和理论意义。