True Colors: Police Officers and Rape Myth Acceptance

Abstract

Institutionally, significant advancements in rape law reform have occurred. Culturally, police officers sometimes fail to adopt these changes. A survey designed to assess acceptance of rape myths was administered to 891 police officers in two southeastern states. The study found that the majority of police officers view the overall crime of rape as a serious one, however, approximately 6% provided sexist feedback that supports rape myths. These findings indicate that more work is needed in altering the attitudes of police officers.This article provides a description of the goals of rape law reforms, reviews research assessing the effectiveness of the reforms, and provides a measure of police officers' attitudes toward the crime of rape and its victims. contributed a notable body of research to the evaluation of the reforms by investigating the prosecutorial level of the criminal justice system. This research suggests that police officers may not fully embrace these changes.Myths that blame women for sexual victimization, while excusing male behavior, have informed law and social policies regarding sexual violence. Historically, rape laws were enacted to protect the property rights of men (

A Brief Report on Rape Myth Acceptance: Differences Between Police Officers, Law Students, and Psychology Students in the United Kingdom

“…The IRMA (Payne et al, 1999) contains 45 items of which five are filler items. The scale includes seven subscales which assess specific rape myths: "she asked for it," "it wasn't really rape," "he didn't mean to," "she wanted it," "she lied," "rape is a trivial event," and "rape is deviant event."…”

“…This 19-item scale largely focuses on rape myths associated with the victim; for example, "In the majority of rapes, the victim is promiscuous or has a bad reputation." Reliability measures of this scale have been satisfactory, but limitations have been found (see Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1995;Norton & Grant, 2008;Oh & Neville, 2004;Payne, Lonsway, & Fitzgerald, 1999;Ward, 1988). In light of these limitations with the RMAS, Payne et al (1999) developed the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance scale (IRMA).…”

“…Reliability measures of this scale have been satisfactory, but limitations have been found (see Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1995;Norton & Grant, 2008;Oh & Neville, 2004;Payne, Lonsway, & Fitzgerald, 1999;Ward, 1988). In light of these limitations with the RMAS, Payne et al (1999) developed the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance scale (IRMA). This measure provides more in-depth assessment of rape myth acceptance through its 45 items (40 rape myth items, 5 filler items) that measure seven rape myth factors.…”

Narrative Construction of Sexual Violence and Rape Online

“…The effects of rape myth acceptance have been found to include victims refusing to disclose their victimisation to not only those closest to them but also to the authorities (Grubb and Turner 2012). Should victims choose to report their crime members of the police or other local authorities may be disinclined to believe victims (Grubb and Turner 2012;Page 2010;Ullman 1996), with the result that only a small number of sexual assaults are investigated and a smaller number of perpetrators are charged and tried for their offences (Grubb and Turner 2012). If members of the public not only receive their information about sexual assaults and violence from old media but are now also readily able to interact with their news sources via social media, it raises questions about how individuals are employing rape myths in their narratives about sexual crimes and how this may influence the criminal justice system in the long-term.…”

“…The criminal justice system has had a large role to play in the continued recurrence and spread in this false conception. Suspicion of rape complainants within the criminal justice system is well documented (Gray 2006;Page 2010) and has often come from high within the system, from judges who have warned jurors about accepting the victim's allegation without witness corroboration (Leahy 2014: 20). While the directions from judges to jurors can influence disbelief of rape victims, research indicates that media narratives about sexual violence have a profound effect on how individuals respond to victims' allegations and how they employ rape myths when tasked with deciding a defendant's guilt or innocence.…”