Beliefs About Rape and Women's Social Roles

Costin, Frank; Schwarz, Norbert

doi:10.1177/088626087002001003

Cited by 73 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…To assess participants' rape-myth acceptance (RMA), a 10-item version of Bohner's (1998) 'Vergewaltigungsmythenakzeptanz-Skala' (VMAS) was used. The VMAS is a German adaptation of Costin's (1985) R-scale. Item examples are: 'Women often provoke rape through their appearance or behaviour' and 'The defence in a rape trial should not be able to submit as evidence the sexual history of the alleged victim, (reverse scored).…”

Section: Assessment Of Rape-myth Acceptancementioning

confidence: 99%

Writing about rape: Use of the passive voice and other distancing text features as an expression of perceived responsibility of the victim

Bohner

2001

British J Social Psychol

104

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The hypothesis that the passive voice is used to put the actor in the background and the acted-upon person in the focus of discourse is tested in the realm of sexual violence. German university students (N = 67) watched a silent video segment depicting a rape whose circumstances, depending on condition, could or could not be easily interpreted in terms of rape myths. Then they wrote down what they had seen, judged the responsibility of assailant and victim, and completed a rape-myth acceptance scale. Participants used the passive voice more frequently to describe the rape itself vs. other actions they had watched. When circumstances of the rape were easily interpretable in terms of rape myths, use of the passive voice correlated positively with rape-myth acceptance and perceived responsibility of the victim, and negatively with perceived responsibility of the assailant. The language of headlines that participants generated for their reports also reflected judgments of assailant and victim responsibility. Implications for the non-reactive assessment of responsibility attributions and directions for future research are discussed.

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Section: Assessment Of Rape-myth Acceptancementioning

confidence: 99%

Writing about rape: Use of the passive voice and other distancing text features as an expression of perceived responsibility of the victim

Bohner

2001

British J Social Psychol

104

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“…It seems reasonable to conclude that in most cases where differences occur, females' judgements are more 'pro-victim', being less likely to blame her, and more likely to convict and more severely punish the rapist. A related finding is that females are less accepting of rape myths (Burt, 1980) than males (Check & Malamuth, 1983;Costin, 1985;Feild, 19786;Giacopassi & Dull, 1986;Muehlenhard & Linton, 1987;Ward, 1988).…”

Section: Subject Differences In Attributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, traditional sex-role attitudes have been found to be related to victim blame for spouse abuse (Kristiansen C(r Giulietti, 1990) and sexual harassment (Malovich & Stake, 1990;Valentine-French & Radtke, 1989), and to attitudes condoning marital rape Ueffords, 1984) and physical abuse (Finn, 1986;Gentemann, 1984;Saunders, Lynch, Grayson & Linz, 1987;Saunders & Size, 1986). Again, a related finding is that traditional sex-role attitudes and rape myth acceptance are related (Check & Malamuth 1983Costin, 1985;Costin & Schwarz, 1987;Feild,.l9786;Hall, Howard & Boetio, 1986;Mayerson & Taylor, 1987;Schwartz & Brand, 1983). Finally, attribution of responsibility has been directly related to rape myth acceptance (Check & Malamuth, 1985;Jenkins & Dambrot, 1987;Krahe, 1788).…”

Section: Subject Differences In Attributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Judgements about victims and attackers in depicted rapes: A review

Pollard¹

1992

British J Social Psychol

197

202

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This paper reviews the effects on subjects' judgements of a variety of factors that have been included in experimental depictions of rape. The focus is on attribution of responsibility or fault to the victim or attacker and related judgements, particularly regarding guilt and sanctions. Generally, females make more pro-victim judgements than do males, and people with non-traditional sex-role attitudes make more pro-victim judgements than do holders of more traditional views. Other factors covered are various victim characteristics, victim-attacker acquaintance, resistance, and victim attire and a range of behaviours prior to the attack. These are limits to generalization due to populations studied and methods used, and the observed effects of several factors are either minimal or inconsistent. However, some factors have reliable effects on judgements, which it is argued are explainable in terms of their link with traditional beliefs about women's rights and roles. Males have often been found to be more susceptible to these effects. In particular, it appears that if a female engages in any behaviour deemed to be 'incautious' that results in victimization then she may be perceived to be at fault, even though these behaviours would be 'legitimate' for males, and that prior romantic involvement with the attacker mitigates the perceived seriousness of, and may even be seen as supplying justification for, a sexual attack. The existence of these attitudes implies that rape may be tacitly condoned in many situations.

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“…A number of studies have found that male college students endorse rape myths-beliefs that deny the reality of rape as injurious violence and place the responsibility for heterosexual rape on the woman's behavior-more than female college students (cf. Burt & Albin, 1981;Costin & Schwarz, 1987;Muehlenhard & Linton, 1987). Feild (1978) found the same sex difference in a noncollege sample and Luginbill and Mullin (1981) and Kleinke and Meyer (1990) found that men blamed victims more than women.…”

mentioning

confidence: 81%

The Impact of Contemplated Exposure to a Survivor of Rape on Attitudes toward Rape¹

Ellis

O’Sullivan

Sowards

1992

J Applied Social Pyschol

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Male and female college students were asked to rate the truth of myths about rape either before or after contemplating how they would react if a close friend or relative told them she had been raped. It was expected that such contemplation would decrease endorsement of rape myths, by increasing sympathy for victims and reducing the tendency to blame victims for sexual assault. Typically, studies have found that women are less accepting of rape myths and more sympathetic to rape victims than men. A reason for this may be that women have thought about rape more and are more likely to have experienced sexual assault or to be acquainted with a survivor. Based on the above findings, it was hypothesized that contemplating exposure to a rape survivor would be particularly beneficial to men's attitudes. Results contradicted the hypothesis and showed that contemplating exposure increased rejection of rape myths for women but slightly increased men's endorsements. In contrast, men and women who were actually acquainted with a rape survivor rejected rape myths more strongly than those who did not claim acquaintance.

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Beliefs About Rape and Women's Social Roles

Cited by 73 publications

References 9 publications

Writing about rape: Use of the passive voice and other distancing text features as an expression of perceived responsibility of the victim

Writing about rape: Use of the passive voice and other distancing text features as an expression of perceived responsibility of the victim

Judgements about victims and attackers in depicted rapes: A review

The Impact of Contemplated Exposure to a Survivor of Rape on Attitudes toward Rape¹

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Beliefs About Rape and Women's Social Roles

Cited by 73 publications

References 9 publications

Writing about rape: Use of the passive voice and other distancing text features as an expression of perceived responsibility of the victim

Writing about rape: Use of the passive voice and other distancing text features as an expression of perceived responsibility of the victim

Judgements about victims and attackers in depicted rapes: A review

The Impact of Contemplated Exposure to a Survivor of Rape on Attitudes toward Rape1

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The Impact of Contemplated Exposure to a Survivor of Rape on Attitudes toward Rape¹