Sexual preference, gender, and blame attributions in adolescent sexual assault

The study investigated the impact of victim sexual orientation, perpetrator gender, and participant gender on judgements toward a 15-year-old male victim of a depicted sexual assault. One hundred and eight-eight participants (97 male, 91 female) read a hypothetical scenario depicting the sexual assault of a 15-year-old male victim where the victim's sexual orientation and the perpetrator's gender were varied between subjects. Participants then completed a questionnaire assessing their attributions toward both the victim and the perpetrator. Results revealed that male participants blamed the victim more than female participants when the victim was both gay and attacked by a male perpetrator. All participants, regardless of gender, made more positive judgements toward the female as opposed to male perpetrator. Results are discussed in relation to gender role stereotypes and homophobia.     

Effects of Victim,Defendant, and Juror Gender on Decisions in Child Sexual Assault Cases1

We examined the combined influence of juror, victim, and defendant gender on jurors’ decisions in child sexual abuse cases. Mock jurors read scenarios of an assault case involving a man or woman defendant accused of molesting a 15‐year‐old boy or girl. Jurors then rendered verdicts and rated the defendant's and victim's believability and responsibility for the abuse. Female jurors were generally more pro‐victim in case judgments than were male jurors. Additionally, a woman perpetrator was evaluated more leniently than was a man perpetrator, especially by male jurors when the victim was a boy. Case judgments were unrelated to jurors’ social conservatism, sexism, or attitudes toward homosexuality. Results have implications for understanding social perceptions of mixed‐ and same‐gender abuse involving adolescent victims, and juror decision making in man‐ and woman‐perpetrated child sexual assault cases.     

Effects of perpetrator gender and victim sexuality on blame toward male victims of sexual assault

Most researchers who have investigated attributions of blame toward victims in sexual-assault depictions have considered only female victims of male perpetrators. Few researchers have investigated the effects of perpetrator gender or victim sexual orientation on blame attributions toward male victims. The present authors investigated those two variables. Participants were 161 undergraduates at a British university in social science courses, each of whom read one scenario of a set in which perpetrator gender and victim sexual orientation were varied between subjects, and who completed a questionnaire measuring their blame toward the victim and the perpetrator. The present results showed that male participants blamed the victim more if a person of the gender that he was normally attracted to assaulted him. Male participants also regarded the female perpetrator in more favorable terms than they did the male perpetrator regardless of the victim's sexual orientation. The authors discussed the present results in relation to gender role stereotypes.     

Attributions of Blame in Sexual Assault to Perpetrators and Victims of Both Genders1

Previous research found that men attribute more blame to rape victims than do women; men also attribute less blame to perpetrators. In rape situations with a male perpetrator and a female victim, the roles of perpetrator and victim are confounded with gender category. To determine whether men are more lenient toward perpetrators or toward other males, the present study examined attributions of blame in scenarios that varied the gender category of both perpetrator and victim. Results showed that men's and women's attributions of blame to perpetrators were based on the role that was enacted, rather than gender per se: Men attributed less blame to perpetrators than did women, regardless of the perpetrator's gender category, indicating that men were more lenient toward perpetrators than were women. In addition, when the victim was female, the perpetrator was blamed more and the victim was blamed less than when the victim was male.     

Assertiveness and Attributions of Blame toward Victims of Sexual Assault

This study investigated the influence of assertiveness on women's attributions of blame toward a victim of sexual assault. Women (N = 211) completed questionnaires assessing general and sexual assertiveness, viewed a video vignette of an acquaintance rape, and were asked to rate the degree of the woman's responsibility for the assault at three points during the video. Results indicated that the rater's level of assertiveness predicted the amount of blame she assigned to the victim of a sexual assault when the victim engaged in unassertive nonverbal resistance and assertive verbal resistance. Implications for prevention programming and forensic psychology (e.g., jury selection) are discussed.     

Gender,gender identity,rape myth acceptance,and time of initial resistance on the perception of acquaintance rape blame and avoidability

This study, including female (n = 355) and male (n = 179) college students, investigated the role of gender, gender role identity, rape myth acceptance, and time of initial resistance in assigning blame to the victim, perpetrator, situation and chance following an acquaintance rape, and perceived degree of avoidability of the assault. Approximately 94% of the participants were White. Men and women low in rape myth acceptance attributed significantly less blame to the victim and situation, more blame to the perpetrator, and were less likely to believe the assault could have been avoided. When time of initial resistance occurred early in the encounter, men and women attributed significantly less blame to the victim and situation, more blame to the perpetrator, and were less likely to believe the sexual assault could have been avoided.     

Perceptions of Sexual Harassment Victims as a Function of Labeling and Reporting

This experimental study used an ambiguous sexualharassment scenario, and manipulated gender and level ofphysical attractiveness within a perpetrator/victimdyad. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of sexual harassment of maleand female students as well as perceptions ofperpetrator and victim character traits. Twohundred-ninety six male and 295 female undergraduate andgraduate students at a large urban university were askedto read the scenario and describe behavior and charactertraits for perpetrator and victim using a seven-pointsemantic differential scale. Eighty-four percent (n = 495) of the sample were White, 5.3% (n =31) were African American, 5.9% (n = 39) were ofHispanic origin, and 4.7% (n = 28) marked other forrace/ethnicity. Results indicate that female studentsperceived the scenario as more sexually harassing thanmale students. However, both men and women judged femaleperpetrators less harshly than male perpetrators. Bothmen and women were influenced by perpetrator attractiveness: they perceived an attractiveopposite gender perpetrator as less harassing than asame gender attractive perpetrator.     

Predicting Rape Empathy Based on Victim, Perpetrator, and Participant Gender, and History of Sexual Aggression

This study examined empathy for a hypothetical rape victim and perpetrator based on gender of victim, perpetrator and participant, and sexual aggression experience. Undergraduates (n?=?591, 333 female) from a United States east coast mid-size public university completed the Rape Victim and Perpetrator Empathy Scales (victim and perpetrator gender experimentally varied), and the Sexual Experiences Survey. Hypotheses were partially supported. Empathy was greater with the victim of a man than a woman. Women with victimization experience were especially empathic with a female victim. Men without victimization experience were relatively non-empathic with a male victim. Empathy was greater with a female than a male perpetrator, especially when her victim was male or when reported by women. A male rapist received the greatest empathy from men with perpetration experience. Findings are consistent with cultural expectations that women are victims and men are aggressors, and may imply that similarity in experience can facilitate rape empathy.     

Gender‐bias hate crimes: what constitutes a hate crime from a potential juror's perspective?

The current study explored hate crime in a nontypical scenario. Label of the crime (first‐degree assault vs. bias‐motivated assault) and gender of the victim were varied within the context of an attack perpetrated within other gender dyads (i.e., when the victim was female, the perpetrator was male, and vice versa). Results indicated that participants in the assault condition were more likely to find the defendant guilty than those in the hate crime condition. Participants also made differential attributions of victim blame, such that those in the assault condition found the victim to be more mentally unstable than those in the hate crime condition.     

Attributions of Responsibility in Cases of Sexual Harassment: The Person and the Situation1

When observers learn about a case of sexual harassment, it is common for them to assign responsibility to the victim and perpetrator. However, attributions of responsibility are complex judgments often based on variables beyond the case's details (e.g., attitudes). The present study examined how victim response, victim and perpetrator gender, and participant gender and gender‐role attitudes influenced participants' attributions. Victim and perpetrator responsibility were measured before and after participants knew the victim's reaction in order to examine whether new information would alter participants' attributions. Consistent with previous research, gender differences were found for attributions and attitudes. Victim and perpetrator gender did not affect attributions. However, biases appeared in open‐ended responses. Finally, only females made distinctions of responsibility across victim reaction condition.     

Club Drug Use and Intentionality in Perceptions of Rape Victims

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether intentionality of alcohol or club drug use would affect observer attributions of a victim and a perpetrator after a sexual assault. Participants were 198 male and female college students sampled from a small college located in the United States. In general, participants attributed less blame to the victim, more guilt to the perpetrator, and were more likely to define the assault as rape and convict the perpetrator when the substance use was involuntary as opposed to voluntary. Participants also attributed more blame to the victim and less pleasure to the perpetrator when the sexual assault involved GHB as opposed to Everclear. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Flirting With Disaster: Short‐Term Mating Orientation and Hostile Sexism Predict Different Types of Sexual Harassment

We combine evolutionary and sociocultural accounts of sexual harassment, proposing that sexuality‐related and hostility‐related motives lead to different types of harassment. Specifically, men's short‐term mating orientation (STMO) was hypothesized to predict only unwanted sexual attention but not gender harassment, whereas men's hostile sexism (HS) was hypothesized to predict both unwanted sexual attention and gender harassment. As part of an alleged computer‐chat task, 100 male students could send sexualized personal remarks (representing unwanted sexual attention), sexist jokes (representing gender harassment), or nonharassing material to an attractive female target. Independently, participants’ STMO, HS, and sexual harassment myth acceptance (SHMA) were assessed. Correlational and path analyses revealed that STMO specifically predicted unwanted sexual attention, whereas HS predicted both unwanted sexual attention and gender harassment. Furthermore, SHMA fully mediated the effect of HS on gender harassment, but did not mediate effects of STMO or HS on unwanted sexual attention. Results are discussed in relation to motivational explanations for sexual harassment and antiharassment interventions. Aggr. Behav. 38:521‐531, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Recommendations to disclose sexual assault are motivated by retribution among women who endorse honor values

Rape arrests are higher in US states wherein residents more typically endorse honor values. Because honor values reflect an association between reputation and self-worth, which is based on one's ability to uphold traditional gender norms, one should expect that women who endorse honor values are motivated to conceal a sexual assault. However, honor values also engender the expectation that women defend their reputations if threatened. Thus, women from honor cultures should be more likely to seek retribution by disclosing a sexual assault to others. The current research investigates the impact of honor values on the recommendation to disclose a sexual assault when women believe the victim is motivated to protect her reputation. We evaluated the role of common post-rape emotions (shame, anger, and fear) on motivations to either conceal a “victim” status or to punish the transgression. In two studies, US women (total n = 842) responded to vignettes of sexual assault that varied the relationship of the perpetrator (acquaintance or husband). Using path modeling to test the two competing hypotheses, we found that women who endorsed honor values more strongly perceived that the victim of a sexual assault experienced more anger and fear, was more likely to seek retribution, and, in turn, were more likely to recommend that she disclose to confidants (similar across the acquaintance and husband scenarios). These findings may help increase researchers' and practitioners' cultural understanding of the help-seeking behavior of survivors of sexual assault across different communities.     

Improving the Credibility of Child Sexual Assault Victims in Court: The Impact of a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner

The present study investigated the influence of a sexual assault nurse examiner's (SANE's) testimony on mock juror perceptions of a child or adolescent victim of child sexual assault. Community members (N = 252, 156 females) read a fictional criminal trial summary of a child sexual assault case in which the victim was 6 or 15 years old and the prosecution presented medical testimony from a SANE or a traditional registered nurse (RN), or did not present medical testimony. Mock jurors were more likely to render guilty verdicts when a SANE testified compared with the other two testimony conditions. In addition, pro-victim judgments (e.g., sympathy toward the victim) and negative defendant judgments (e.g., anger toward the defendant) mediated this relation. Finally, cognitive network representations of the case demonstrated that the RN and no-medical-testimony groups were similar and the SANE group was distinct from the other two conditions. We discuss these results in terms of the implications of SANE testimony in child sexual assault court cases. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Impact of Defendant Gender and Relationship to Victim on Juror Decisions in a Child Sexual Abuse Case

We examined the impact of defendant gender and relationship to victim on verdict decisions and ratings of witness believability in a case of alleged child sexual assault. Mock jurors ( N  = 256) read 1 of 4 extensive case summaries. The cases varied the gender of the defendant and his or her relationship to the child (parent or stranger). Data revealed that participants were significantly more likely to find male defendants (especially the father) guilty than female defendants. Female jurors rated the victim as more believable and the defendant as less believable than did male jurors. All mock jurors rated the victim as more believable if the defendant was male, and they saw the female defendants as more believable than the male defendants.     

To honor and obey: Perceptions and disclosure of sexual assault among honor ideology women

The overwhelming majority of rapes goes unreported. To better understand the sociocultural mechanisms behind why underreporting may occur, three studies (total n = 1,481) examine how women's endorsement of honor values influence the perceptions of rape. Using vignettes that varied the closeness of the perpetrator of a sexual assault (i.e., stranger, acquaintance, or husband), we found that women who endorse honor values of womanhood were less likely to label a forced sexual act as “rape” and to suggest that the victim discloses the rape to others, including to the police. This was especially true the closer the victim was to the perpetrator (e.g., husband vs. stranger). Our findings highlight the effects of honor values on perceived sexual assault and the consequences of disclosure, and may aid in understanding barriers to rape reporting and areas for intervention.

     

Sexual Victimization History and Perceived Similarity to a Sexual Assault Victim: A Path Model of Perceiver Variables Predicting Victim Culpability Attributions

Extant research consistently has shown that culpability attributions toward sexual assault victims are predicted by perceiver gender, perceived similarity to victims, empathy for victims, and rape myth acceptance. The purpose of the present study was to conceptually organize these predictors, which often have been treated disparately in literature. The present sample was composed of 69 female undergraduate students, recruited from a psychology research pool at a university in the southwestern United States. Results of a path analysis demonstrated strong empirical support for a hypothesized causal model linking perceivers?? sexual victimization histories and, in turn, perceptions of similarity to a sexual assault victim based upon these histories, to established predictors of perceivers?? culpability attributions toward sexual assault victims. Basic and applied research implications are discussed.     

Male sexual assault victims: a selective review of the literature and implications for support services

In recent years much has been done to publicize the plight of female rape victims. However, the sexual assault of adult males has received little attention in the research literature or by the public. This paper provides a selective review of the research into the prevalence and effects of male sexual assault victims. Research shows that the effects of sexual assault on adult males are often severe. This paper also outlines findings from experimental studies that have shown that reactions towards male sexual assault victims depend on both the victim's sexual orientation and the perpetrator's gender. Finally, implications for support services are outlined. Victims of both male and female perpetrators are considered, and both gay and heterosexual victims are discussed in relation to the specific needs of these victims. The needs of transgendered victims are also briefly considered, as are the needs of the sexual partners of male sexual assault victims. This paper concludes by offering some suggestions for future research.