The influence of ‘High’ vs. ‘Low’ rape myth acceptance on police officers' judgements of victim and perpetrator responsibility, and rape authenticity

Hine, Benjamin A.; Murphy, Anthony

doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2018.08.001

Cited by 63 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Rape myths include beliefs about the victim's character, appearance, and behavior; the motivations and behavior of the offender; and the situational factors surrounding the offense (e.g., the area, time of day, method; Burt, 1980;Sleath & Bull, 2012) and can be broadly categorized into four categories: blaming the victim; exonerating the perpetrator; the belief that rape is not very common or serious; and the belief that only certain types of women are raped (Gerger et al, 2007;Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1994). Rape myths have been found to be persistent across community and professional samples, and men consistently exhibit higher levels of RMA than do women (Gerger et al, 2007;Hine & Murphy, 2019;Persson et al, 2018;Suarez & Gadalla, 2010). Crucially, a large evidence base has found that RMA correlates with victim blame in rape cases by positioning women as the cause of rape (for a review, see Grubb & Turner, 2012), and it seems to play a particularly important role in assigning blame in acquaintance rape cases (Gravelin et al, 2018).…”

Section: Rmamentioning

confidence: 99%

Attributions of Blame in Stranger and Acquaintance Rape: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Persson

Dhingra

2020

Trauma, Violence, & Abuse

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Background: Victim blame, particularly in cases of acquaintance rape, presents an obstacle to criminal justice. Past research indicates that acquaintance rape results in more blame than stranger rape. However, there are inconsistencies in these findings (e.g., whether there is a linear relationship between victim blame and relationship closeness), partly due to methodological variation. Objectives: To examine the effect of victim–perpetrator relationship on victim blame, how this effect is impacted by rape myth acceptance (RMA) and ambivalent sexism (AS), and to establish what the methodological quality is of studies. Synthesis method: Studies were synthesized through a multilevel meta-analysis using the Metafor package in R (version 2.4-0), synthesizing findings from 47 individual studies. Studies compared victim blame between stranger and acquaintance rape, in isolation or in conjunction with RMA and AS, and were identified through a database search. Results: The review found higher levels of blame in acquaintance as compared to stranger rape, with a medium effect size. This effect was not moderated by RMA. AS was not included as a moderator in the meta-analysis, but the review indicated that benevolent sexism may be a particularly relevant variable. Implications: Future research should examine the relationship between AS and victim blame. The current review contributes to the evidence base on victim blame in rape cases by suggesting that methodological limitations can account for some of the past mixed findings in this area, particularly in a lack of consistency in vignette details. It is recommended that future sexual assault research uses rigorous methodology and increases transparency of research processes.

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Section: Rmamentioning

confidence: 99%

Attributions of Blame in Stranger and Acquaintance Rape: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Persson

Dhingra

2020

Trauma, Violence, & Abuse

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“…Police officers are the "gatekeepers" of the criminal justice system and are usually the first to come into contact with crime victims. As such, they exert major influence on both the victim and the case (Hine and Murphy, 2019). Police work is discretionary by nature, and officer perception of cases, victims, and offenders may impact decisions, such as which cases are worth pursuing, amount of investigative efforts a case will receive, and how to conduct the investigation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Police Officer Perceptions of Non-consensual Dissemination of Intimate Images

Zvi

Shechory-Bitton

2020

Front. Psychol.

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Non-consensual dissemination of intimate images (NCII) is a major concern in many countries. The increase in the number of NCII cases and awareness of its adverse effects on victims has raised public awareness, with many states enacting legal and non-legal measures to combat this new type of violence. Yet, despite recent legislation, there is a reason to suspect that the majority of NCII cases remain unreported. Thus, research is needed on law enforcement perceptions of victims and identification of victim-blaming attitudes and factors that might affect legal decision-making. The present study addressed this issue by focusing on Israeli police officer perceptions of NCII victims and offenders: 145 police officers and 160 students, who served as a control group, were presented with a scenario depicting an NCII offense in which the stolen intimate material was either self-generated by the victim (selfies) or stealth-taken by the victim's ex-boyfriend. In both cases, the stolen images were disseminated by the ex-boyfriend without the victim's permission. The findings indicated victim-blaming attitudes toward NCII victims within law enforcement as well as an effect of the source of stolen images. Although officers perceived NCII as criminal and the offender as highly culpable and punishable, they engaged in victim-blaming. This was especially the case for the self-taken scenario, which elicited negative feelings and less empathy toward the victim. The relevance of emotions in legal contexts is emphasized in light of their contribution to the participants' punitive judgments. Victim-blaming in NCII offenses and its implications are discussed, and suggestions are made for how to reduce negative and victim-blaming attitudes among law enforcement.

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Section: Police Attitudes and Case Decision-makingmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…More recent research has also found relationships between police officers’ stereotypical beliefs about rape and judgments of victim credibility and rape authenticity (Hine & Murphy, 2019; O’Neal, 2019). For example, a large U.K. study ( N = 808) showed that police officers with high levels of rape myth acceptance attributed higher victim responsibility, lower perpetrator responsibility, and gave lower rape authenticity ratings compared to police officers with low levels of rape myth acceptance (Hine & Murphy, 2019). Those with high levels of rape myth acceptance also gave particularly negative judgments to vignette scenarios that included rape myth-related information, leading the authors to conclude that there was a direct relationship between the attitudes of U.K. police officers and judgments of authenticity in hypothetical rape cases, which may in turn influence investigative and case processing decisions.…”

Section: Police Attitudes and Case Decision-makingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Changing Police Officers’ Attitudes in Sexual Offense Cases: A 12-Month Follow-Up Study

Tidmarsh

Hamilton

Sharman

2020

Criminal Justice and Behavior

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We examined whether specialist training can have an immediate and lasting impact on investigators’ attitudes in sexual offense cases. Australian police officers participated in a 4-week training program that focused on the dynamics of sexual offending. Officers completed questionnaires before, immediately after, and 9 to 12 months following training. They were presented with scenarios involving adult and child complainants with varying levels of evidence (strong, weak, or ambiguous) and rated their confidence that the case would be approved for prosecution, the likelihood of a guilty verdict, and the level of responsibility attributed to the victim. Following training, investigators became more confident in case approvals and guilty verdicts, less likely to attribute responsibility to victims, and demonstrated better understanding of sexual offense dynamics. Ratings of victim responsibility and guilty verdicts were maintained 9 to 12 months post-training; however, confidence in case approvals decreased after working in the field. Implications for police training programs are discussed.

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The influence of ‘High’ vs. ‘Low’ rape myth acceptance on police officers' judgements of victim and perpetrator responsibility, and rape authenticity

Cited by 63 publications

References 42 publications

Attributions of Blame in Stranger and Acquaintance Rape: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Attributions of Blame in Stranger and Acquaintance Rape: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Police Officer Perceptions of Non-consensual Dissemination of Intimate Images

Changing Police Officers’ Attitudes in Sexual Offense Cases: A 12-Month Follow-Up Study

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