“Real rapes” and “real victims”: The shared reliance on common cultural definitions of rape

Stewart, Mary W.; Dobbin, Shirley A.; Gatowski, Sophia I.

doi:10.1007/bf02167608

Cited by 78 publications

(52 citation statements)

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“…This research is unable to gauge the extent to which prospective lawyers are susceptible to the influence of rape stereotypes on their judgments about rape cases. Few studies have examined the responses of professionals dealing with rape victims, particularly members of the police force and the judiciary (e.g., Stewart et al, 1996;Temkin, 2000;Ward, 1995). The present research was designed to address this issue by exploring the extent to which prospective lawyers are influenced by stereotypic views about rape in their assessment of specific rape cases.…”

Section: Permanent Repository Linkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In common law systems, a familiar strategy adopted by the defence at trial is to seek to undermine the complainant's credibility in the eyes of the jury by casting doubt on her truthfulness and reputation, e.g., by questions about Prospective Lawyers' Rape Stereotypes 4 her lifestyle and sexual conduct. This strategy is rooted in widely shared beliefs that "real rape"is an attack by a stranger on an unsuspecting victim who is overcome by force (Stewart, Dobbin, & Gatowski, 1996), and also in gender stereotypes delineating what is fit and proper behavior for women (Krahé, 1988). If such stereotypic beliefs are endorsed by legal professionals, this may assist in undermining the position of the victim in the criminal justice system and may be a causal factor underlying the high attrition rates in rape cases (Brown, Hamilton, & O'Neill, 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Prospective lawyers’ rape stereotypes and schematic decision making about rape cases

Krahé

Temkin

Bieneck

et al. 2008

Psychology, Crime & Law

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This is the unspecified version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Germany. In Study 1, 451 undergraduate law students rated rape scenarios varying with respect to defendant-complainant relationship and coercive strategy (force versus exploitation of the complainant's alcohol-induced defenselessness). Acceptance of rape myths was also measured. Permanent repository linkLikelihood of defendant liability was rated to be lower when there was a prior relationship between the parties and when the defendant exploited the complainant's defenselessness as compared to when he used force (except in the ex-partner rapes where blame was higher in the alcohol-related than in the force-related cases). Complainant blame was higher when there was a prior relationship between the parties and was higher in the alcohol-related cases than in the force-related cases, except in the ex-partner rape where the pattern was reversed. Participants with high rape myth acceptance held the defendant less liable and blamed the complainant more, especially when the two had known each other. Study 2 largely replicated these findings with 129 postgraduate trainee lawyers and showed that sentencing recommendations also varied as a function of defendant-complainant relationship and coercive strategy. Providing participants with the legal definition of rape did not reduce reliance on rape-stereotypes. there is a consensus among practitioners and researchers that stereotypical conceptions of rape shared by the public and members of the criminal justice system play an important role in this problem (Temkin & Krahé, 2008). These include the belief that women often precipitate rape through their own behavior or appearance and that accusations of rape made against a former sexual partner are likely to be fabricated (see Temkin & Krahé, 2008, Chapter 2, for a review).Despite the fact that legal decision-making is normatively defined as data-driven, i.e.relying exclusively on the facts and the evidence, there is plenty of scope for schematic conceptions about rape rooted in rape myths to infiltrate. In common law systems, a familiar strategy adopted by the defence at trial is to seek to undermine the complainant's credibility in the eyes of the jury by casting doubt on her truthfulness and reputation, e.g., by questions about Prospective Lawyers' Rape Stereotypes 4 her lifestyle and sexual conduct. This strategy is rooted in widely shared beliefs that "real rape"is an attack by a stranger on an unsuspecting victim who is overcome by force (Stewart, Dobbin, & Gatowski, 1996), and also in gender stereotypes delineating what is fit and proper behavior for women (Krahé, 1988). If such stereotypic beliefs are endorsed by legal professionals, this may assist in undermining the position of the victim in the criminal justice system and may be a causal factor underlying the high attrition rates in rape cases (Brown, Hamilton, & O'Neill, 2007). Lawyers' rape-related stereotypes also matter in countries that do n...

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Section: Permanent Repository Linkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Prospective lawyers’ rape stereotypes and schematic decision making about rape cases

Krahé

Temkin

Bieneck

et al. 2008

Psychology, Crime & Law

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“…By way of analogy with the literature on rape (e.g. Stewart et al, 1996;Temkin and Krahé, 2008), the 'real child abuse' stereotype usually takes place in an outdoor setting, involves the use or threat of force by a stranger perpetrator, and an unsuspecting and passive victim in a one-off random assault. These reductionist narratives concerning legitimate victimhood run counter to the available evidence in child sexual abuse cases in which the victim of aberrational extrafamilial abuse is privileged over the more vulnerable victim of intimate abuse who is abused repeatedly over a period of time.…”

Section: Victims Hierarchies and Blamementioning

confidence: 99%

Deconstructing Victim and offender Identites in Discourses on Child Sexual Abuse: Hierarchies, Blame and the Good/Evil Dialectic

McAlinden¹

2014

British Journal of Criminology

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“…Rape myths characterize rape as an act of violent, forceful penetration committed by a stranger during an attack in a public or deserted place (16,17). The stereotypical victim is a morally upright woman who was physically injured while resisting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The stereotypical victim is a morally upright woman who was physically injured while resisting. Other prevalent rape myths are that women lead men on and therefore deserve to be raped, that women often make false accusations of rape, and that no woman can be raped against her will (16)(17)(18).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association between experiencing rape, police reporting, and self‐reported health among women visiting three gynecology clinics in Sweden

Davidsson

Benjaminsson

Wijma

et al. 2009

Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand

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Objective. To describe the frequency of police reporting among rape victims based on two hypotheses: (1) victims of rape more often report poor health than those who have not been victims of any abuse, and (2) victims who report abuse to the police are more likely to state poor self-reported health than those who do not report any abuse. Design. Cross-sectional questionnaire study. Setting. Three Swedish departments of obstetrics and gynecology. Sample. From an original sample of 2,439 women, those who had experienced rape and those who had no history of abuse were included (n=1,319). Method. Analysis of associations between self-reported poor health, rape, and police reporting among rape victims were assessed by multivariate models adjusted for type of abuse, perpetrator, and sociodemographic factors. Main outcome measures. Odds ratios (ORs) for poor health among rape victims. Results. Rape was seldom reported to the police (23.5%, 44/187). Both hypotheses were confirmed; rape victims more often state poor health than non-abused women (adjusted OR 3.9; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.4-6.3), and women who had reported abuse to the police stated poor health more often than those who had not reported abuse to the police (adjusted OR 3.0; 95% CI 1.1-8.1). Conclusions. Three of four rape victims had not reported any abuse to the police, and those who had were more likely to report poor health. Rape myths are prevalent in society and affect how victims of sexual abuse are treated both by formal and informal support providers, which in turn may affect the recovery and health of victims. Our results send an urgent message to the current debate on sexual abuse against women: Why do women not report rape to the police?Johanna Davidsson, Gabriella Benjaminsson, Barbro Wijma and Katarina Swahnberg, Association between experiencing rape, police reporting, and self-reported health among women visiting three gynecology clinics in Sweden, 2009, ACTA OBSTETRICIA ET GYNECOLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, (88), 9, 1000-1005. ACTA OBSTETRICIA ET GYNECOLOGICA SCANDINAVICA is available online at informaworldTM: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00016340903147397 Copyright: Taylor & Francis http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/default.as

show abstract

“Real rapes” and “real victims”: The shared reliance on common cultural definitions of rape

Cited by 78 publications

References 0 publications

Prospective lawyers’ rape stereotypes and schematic decision making about rape cases

Prospective lawyers’ rape stereotypes and schematic decision making about rape cases

Deconstructing Victim and offender Identites in Discourses on Child Sexual Abuse: Hierarchies, Blame and the Good/Evil Dialectic

Association between experiencing rape, police reporting, and self‐reported health among women visiting three gynecology clinics in Sweden

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