Rape Myth Acceptance of Police Officers in Portugal

Abstract

This study intended to examine rape myth acceptance (RMA) among police officers and its relationship with sociodemographic data, length of service, specific training in the field, and professional experience with victims of rape. To this end, we applied the Sexual Violence Beliefs Scale (ECVS) and controlled for sociodemographic data, as well as professional experience and specific training in the field, through a self-report questionnaire. The sample was composed of 400 police officers from a city in the north of Portugal, aged between 29 and 54 years, and most were men (94.3%). We found that tolerance to overall sexual violence exhibits positive correlations with age and length of service, as well as negative correlations with education levels. Differences were also found regarding gender, with men exhibiting greater tolerance/acceptance of overall sexual violence. It was also found that officers who exhibit higher tolerance/acceptance for sexual violence, overall, are those who do not consider it relevant to receive specific training in the field of sexual violence to perform their duties, who report not having any professional experience with cases of sexual violence and also do not consider it necessary to have specific abilities for these types of cases. Implications for decision-making in legal proceedings are discussed, stressing the need for specific specialization in intervention with victims of sexual assault, with a strong practical component.

Rape myths in practice: the everyday work of accounting for rape survivors

“…The training implications could be extended to other professionals involved in supporting survivors of rape, including the police, barristers and judged. This is particularly important given that Fávero et al (2020) found that more senior police officers had higher rates of rape myth acceptance and also considered that is was not necessary to receive specialist training on sexual violence-our research proves otherwise.…”

“…Walsh et al (2016) found that women who had been drug raped were particularly concerned about not being believed or acknowledgment that what happened to them constituted rape, influenced by often having poor memory about the event themselves, and the lack of a stereotypical rape script of traumatic fear and injury during the rape (Littleton et al, 2006). This concern is justified as Fávero et al (2020) found that older police officers, longer in service, disbelieved that rape was as severe when it did not fit stereotypical representations of rape (e.g. including physical violence).…”

“…Rape myths and rape-supportive culture also explain how people respond to survivors and perpetrators, in that the impact on survivors is often minimised and they are blamed for what happened (Carmody and Washington, 2001). Over the last two decades numerous studies have found that rape myths go unchallenged by police, barristers and judges, and so have a direct impact on sentencing and the survivor's wellbeing during trials (Fávero et al, 2020;HM Government, 2021;Smith and Skinner, 2017;Smith, 2018). Such lack of support, disbelief or blame of the survivor can lead to 'secondary victimisation' (Yamawaki, 2007), with survivors experiencing guilt or shame with regards to their conduct or character, which can also contribute to underreporting and attrition (Krahé, 2016;Suarez and Gadalla, 2010).…”

“…This is not necessarily a supportive experience; Starzynski et al (2017) found that the more professionals a survivor disclosed to, the more negative their experience as they felt judged and blamed. Furthermore, staff from these various services will hold various levels of training and experience of working with sexual assault, and McKay (2001) found that therapists' years of experience of working with rape survivors were, paradoxically, positively associated with rape myth acceptance; a finding repeated in Fávero et al's (2020) research with police officers. Possible explanations for this might be that therapists and the police are experiencing 'compassion fatigue' from repeated exposure (Suarez and Gadalla, 2010); or that therapists and survivors avoid talking about the trauma of sexual assault, resulting in partly and/or implicitly justifying the rape (Fox and Carey, 1999).…”

“…The present study formulates part of a programme of work (along with Fávero et al, 2020;Hansen et al, 2010;Kitzinger and Frith, 1999;Auburn and Lea, 2003) seeking to examine how rape myths operate in practice. In this way, the work presented here might be considered a "ground-up" counterpart to the "topdown" approach presented above, which dominates in the literature (e.g.…”