Who Are You to Me? Relational Distance to Victims and Perpetrators Affects Advising to Report Rape

Abstract

The victim’s decision to report a crime is generally dependent on the advice received from a confidant. The effects of a confidant’s relationship to victims and perpetrators on the advice given to report rape were investigated. Indian participants ( N = 418) read one of the seven scenarios of acquaintance rape as a confidant; the scenarios depicted different relationships between the victim and perpetrator (family vs. friend vs. stranger). Confidants closer to victims were more likely to advise reporting, whereas confidants closer to the perpetrator were less likely to advise reporting. Rape myth acceptance and victim blaming negatively predicted reporting to agencies.

Modern Rape Myths: Justifying Victim and Perpetrator Blame in Sexual Violence

“…Rape myths are defined as culturally ingrained, false, widespread, and persistent attitudes and beliefs to justify, deny or normalize men's sexual aggressions against women [13,[16][17][18]. These beliefs produce bias in the attributions toward those involved in sexual aggression, making the victim responsible and reducing the aggressor's blame [19][20][21].…”

The exposition of rape in Cyprus: From the crime scene to the court room

“…However, people from victims' friendly (17.9%) or related (9%) social surroundings also seem to play a role in rape reporting. Taken to its furthest extent, as a relevant study indicates (Puthillam et al, 2022), in direct contrast to victims' friends who encourage victims to report rape, offenders' friends tend to discourage the later from doing so. At any rate, there are also cases where Cyprus police (in the process of investigating another case) come into contact with the victims and, as a result, the latter report their rape (7.1%).…”