Variations in Women’s Attribution of Blame for Sexual Assault

Abstract

In the United States, sexual assault (SA) is a significant problem that has adverse psychological impacts on women. Scholarship has shown that when survivors choose to disclose their experiences, the way their networks react has a powerful impact on their well-being, but literature on response to SA disclosure has not extensively explored variation among women, who are likely recipients of these disclosures. This study explored variation among perceptions of and blame attribution for SA within a geographically and politically diverse but primarily White sample of women. Participants were assigned one of four vignettes, each of which described a non-stereotypical SA. The vignettes differed in two ways: (1) the social status of the perpetrator of the assault and (2) the length of time the victim waited to report. Results showed that being older and more politically conservative was associated with assigning less blame to the perpetrator and more blame to the victim, but neither education level nor where the participant lived were linked with blame attribution. While women’s own experiences of SA were unrelated to their responses, having a loved one who had experienced SA was associated with less victim blaming. With respect to attitudes, women endorsing higher levels of social dominance orientation (SDO) and sexism also reported higher levels of victim blame and lower levels of perpetrator blame. Further research should explore the role of specific personal experiences and knowledge of others’ SA in assignment of blame, investigate the predictors and moderators of SDO, and should extend these findings to more racially/ethnically diverse samples of women.