INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Losing a job and other economic uncertainties carry an added threat besides finding ways to pay the rent or grocery bills.

For some women, and a few men, the pressure also raises the threat of rape and other sexual violence, experts said as the state prepared this week to hold 10 regional forums aimed at uncovering the social attitudes and other factors that contribute to sexual violence and finding ways to prevent it.

"In crisis and economic uncertainty, sexual violence tends to increase," said Abigail Kelly-Smith, director of the Rape Prevention and Education Program at the Indiana State Department of Health.

People left desperate or feeling powerless from the loss of a job, a natural disaster or another situation beyond their control at times try to feel powerful in other ways, Kelly-Smith said Monday.

"In crisis situations, there are many things that cause people to do things that they might not do otherwise. Circumstances outside people's control can really affect what they do," she said.

Such crises contribute to nearly one in five Indiana women experiencing some type of sexual assault in her lifetime, and one in eight reporting having been raped, according to a survey last year for the Indiana Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

The forums, which begin Wednesday in Fort Wayne and continue through the first week of December, are aimed at bringing together parents, educators, faith leaders, medical professionals, attorneys and others to identify local factors that contribute to sexual assaults and find ways to mitigate them. Information gathered at the forums should result in a statewide strategy by this time next year, Kelly-Smith said.

Anita Carpenter, chief executive of the coalition, said sexual violence includes obscene jokes, bullying and dating violence.

"It's a full continuum of a crime. We're seeing it our schools," Carpenter said.

Changing attitudes toward sexual violence — and placing the blame with perpetrators rather than victims — takes years, if not generations, said Joan Knies, a community education specialist with Crisis Connection Inc., a program helping victims of sexual and domestic violence in five southern Indiana counties.

That's one reason why her group works with schools, teaching the youngest students not to bully others and older ones to form healthy relationships with the opposite sex that steer people away from the risk of sexual violence, Knies said.

"It takes time. You're changing a social norm," Knies said.

Getting men involved in dialogues on sexual violence such as the forums is critical to changing those social attitudes, Knies and Kelly-Smith said.

Already, men's groups on college campuses such as DePauw University in Greencastle and the University of Notre Dame in South Bend are promoting gender equity, peer education and other activities in which men work actively against sexual violence.

For men already in the work force and running their own businesses, the best strategy might be showing them the costs of sexual violence and the risks to their daughters and other family members.

One state, Minnesota, has calculated sexual violence carries an annual pricetag of $8 billion in medical and mental health care, lost work and productivity, criminal justice and other costs, Kelly-Smith said.

The locations and times of nine of the 10 regional forums to be held by the Office of Women's Health at the Indiana State Department of Health to gather local input on the causes of sexual violence and ways to prevent it. (A meeting in northwest Indiana has not yet been scheduled):

— Wednesday, Fort Wayne, 1-3:30 p.m., Medical Society Building, 709 Clay St., 3rd floor.

— Thursday, Elkhart, 9-11:30 a.m., Elkhart County Health Department, 608 Oakland Ave.

— Nov. 20, Bloomington, 1-3:30 p.m., Bloomington Adult Community Center, 349 S. Walnut St.

— Nov. 21, Lawrenceburg, 9-11:30 a.m., Ivy Tech, 500 Industrial Dr.

— Nov. 24, Greencastle, 7-9:30 p.m., Putnam County Hospital, 1542 S. Bloomington St.

— Nov. 25, Evansville, 1-3:30 p.m., Evansville Central Library, 200 SE Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.

— Dec. 2, Lafayette, 9-11:30 a.m., Tippecanoe County Extension Office, 3150 Sagamore Parkway South.

— Dec. 3, Muncie, 1-3:30 p.m., Kennedy Library, 1700 W. McGalliard Rd.

— Dec. 4, Danville, 9-11:30 a.m., Hendricks County Government Center, 355 S. Washington St.