Effects of gender and sexuality on judgements of victim blame and rape myth acceptance in a depicted male rape

Relatively few studies have investigated judgements towards male rape, and no published studies have investigated gay men's judgements towards this offence. The current study investigated the effects of gender and sexuality on victim blame and male rape myth acceptance in the depicted rape of a gay man. It was predicted that heterosexual men would make the most anti‐victim judgements, while gay men would make the most pro‐victim judgements. One hundred and fifty members of the UK population read a scenario that depicted a male rape, and then completed a questionnaire that measured blame and rape myths. As predicted, heterosexual men endorsed more rape myths and blamed the victim more than heterosexual women or gay men. Gay men made the most pro‐victim judgements overall. Results are discussed in relation to homophobia and traditional gender roles. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Volunteers serving victims of sexual assault

Rape crisis volunteers who provide direct-care services to victims of sexual assault are a much-understudied group. Volunteers provide a crucial role in support of nonprofit rape crisis centers, and factors influencing their continued service are an important consideration for decision makers. In the present study, the authors examined--among volunteers providing hospital and crisis-line advocacy to victims of sexual assault--the training, service self-efficacy, social support, and experiences with victim blaming as correlates with overall satisfaction, affective commitment, and the intent to remain. Overall satisfaction and affective commitment were positively related to the intent to stay. Additionally, the perceived value of training was positively related to overall satisfaction and the intent to remain.     

Effects of victim gender and physical vs. psychological trauma/injury on observers' perceptions of sexual assault and its aftereffects

Researchers have examined many underlying attitudes toward rape. Studies have focused on female victims while an increasing number of reported male rape victims has been overlooked. This study compared observers' attribution of guilt toward rape victims and their rapists. It also specified the trauma inflicted by either physical or psychological concomitants of rape victimization and compared the effect of such information on both blame and expectation of recovery. Participants were university students, primarily Caucasian, with mean ages 20.56 and 21.21 years for males and females, respectively. Female victims were judged more harshly than male victims. Length of imprisonment considered appropriate for guilty assailants was found to be greater when injury was done to one's own gender. Recovery was expected to be a lengthy process. Implications for social gender stereotyping and public attitudes concerning aftereffects of traumatic stress are discussed.

     

The influence of victim intoxication and victim attire on police responses to sexual assault

Limited research exists on the impact of contextual factors such as victim intoxication and victim attire on police processing of a case of sexual assault. The effects of these variables were examined in a simulated sexual assault case. Participants were 125 detectives from the New South Wales Police Department. Officers read controverted witness statements and viewed photographs pertaining to an investigation of a report of date rape. Contrary to findings in earlier studies, complainant intoxication, ‘provocative’ dress, and gender of the officer had no influence on the likelihood of charging the alleged offender. Factors predictive of pressing charges were the perceived credibility of the complainant and culpability of the alleged offender. Credibility and guilt judgements were themselves influenced by the level of rape myth acceptance endorsed by the officers. Rape myth acceptance also exerted a number of other effects on case evaluations. Implications for future studies and education and training programmes for police on sexual assault were discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of perpetrator similarity in reactions toward innocent victims

Building and extending on just world theory, this paper studies people's negative reactions to innocent victims of rape or sexual assault. Specifically, we focus on an as yet unexplored variable that may help to explain these reactions, namely whether the perpetrator of the crime was similar or dissimilar to people who observed what happened to the victim. Perpetrator similarity refers to whether the perpetrator belongs to the personal world of the observer or not, and in accordance with predictions derived from just world theory, findings of three studies reveal that especially men take more physical distance from an innocent victim (Study 1) and blame (Study 2) and derogate (Study 3) an innocent victim more when the perpetrator is similar to them as opposed to when the perpetrator is different from them. Implications are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making sense of male rape: constructions of gender,sexuality and experience of rape victims

This study reports a preliminary investigation into accounting practices for male rape in conversation. Thirty men and women, in dyads, were asked to discuss an incident of male rape presented to them in a vignette. The findings showed that two main issues were discussed: the experience of the rape act and societal responses to male victims. In addition, participants established a ‘hierarchy of suffering’, where rape was judged to be worse for ‘heterosexual’ men than it is for ‘women’ or ‘gay’ men. Hegemonic, phallocentric representations of heterosexuality were mobilized to argue that acts of rape and consensual intercourse are the same for ‘gay’ men and ‘women’ and therefore less traumatic than for ‘heterosexual’ men. This obscures the violence of rape for gay men and women and exonerates perpetrators by minimizing injury sustained. Participants also argued that heterosexual victims are likely to experience ridicule for having departed from hegemonic masculinity. Arguments were constructed to avoid charges of being dismissive towards women and gay men and of victim blaming in relation to heterosexual men. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self-centeredness and the adult male perpetrator of child sexual abuse

Self-centeredness has been identified as a quality of the adult male perpetrator of child sexual abuse, but little or no effort has been expended toward defining the concept clearly. In this paper, the research literature on the perpetrator and psychoanalytic writings on narcissism are reviewed for the purpose of developing a comprehensive definition of self-centeredness. Literature related to the social and developmental context of child sexual abuse also is discussed. In the final section of the paper, implications for primary prevention and treatment are drawn.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the Groves Conference on Marriage and the Family, July, 1986, in London, England. Support for the paper was provided through the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station and the Faculty Summer Research Fellowship Program, Graduate School, University of Minnesota.     

The psychophysiological correlates of risk recognition among victims and non-victims of sexual assault

This study examined the psychophysiological correlates of risk recognition in sexual victimization. Victims and non-victims of sexual assault listened to a hypothetical date rape interaction and were asked to indicate the point at which the man had become sexually inappropriate. Subjective and objective (physiology) measures of responding as well as a measure of risk recognition in reaction to the date rape scenario were analyzed to evaluate both between and within-subjects' differences. Results showed that, relative to non-victims, victims of sexual assault displayed significant differences in risk recognition as well as both subjective and objective measures of physiological reactivity. Overall, the results indicate that altered physiological responding to relevant threat cues may be related to individuals' ability to identify and react to threatening sexual situations.     

Retrieval-induced forgetting after trauma: A study with victims of sexual assault

The Retrieval-Induced Forgetting (RIF) paradigm is used to study how the repeated retrieval practice of particular memories impairs the retrieval of related memory traces. A study is reported where this automatic form of forgetting was investigated in a group of sexual-assault victims and a control group. Using a recognition-cued RIF task, the present study examined RIF with neutral, positive, negative and trauma-specific stimuli. Response time data showed that irrespective of previous trauma exposure, a RIF effect was observed for neutral material, but not for emotional material. No differences in RIF between the trauma group and the control group were found. Inconsistencies with previous literature and the implications for emotional memory are discussed.     

Retrieval-induced forgetting after trauma: a study with victims of sexual assault

The Retrieval-Induced Forgetting (RIF) paradigm is used to study how the repeated retrieval practice of particular memories impairs the retrieval of related memory traces. A study is reported where this automatic form of forgetting was investigated in a group of sexual-assault victims and a control group. Using a recognition-cued RIF task, the present study examined RIF with neutral, positive, negative and trauma-specific stimuli. Response time data showed that irrespective of previous trauma exposure, a RIF effect was observed for neutral material, but not for emotional material. No differences in RIF between the trauma group and the control group were found. Inconsistencies with previous literature and the implications for emotional memory are discussed.     

Contextual effects of personal network on individuals' tendency to blame the victims of sexual harassment

Victim-blaming has been studied extensively, especially in the context of sexual violence. In the present study, the distribution of opinion with regard to female victims of sexual violence among people in the respondents' networks was used to explain their victim-blaming tendency. Data from respondents' personal networks were collected, and the results revealed that respondents' attitudes towards victim-blaming correlated positively with the proportion of network others who had positive attitudes towards victim-blaming. The correlation was stronger among respondents who had low concern for the issue. The results supported a model of information bias of personal network on attitudes.     

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.     

Supportive and unsupportive responses of others to rape victims: Effects on concurrent victim adjustment

Evaluated the impact that actions of significant others have on adjustment following rape. Significant other behavior is conceptualized as having two dimensions--supportive behavior and unsupportive behavior--and each dimension was measured using multiple items. Unsupportive behavior, but not supportive behavior, was found to bear a significant association to victim adjustment. Implications for those who work with victims are discussed.     

Cognitive beliefs about male sexuality: The impact of gender roles and counselor perspectives

Two studies are presented which examine stereotypie beliefs about males and their sexuality through the use of the Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale (SAMSS). In the first study, the relationship between the SAMSS and two gender role measures were examined. The results revealed that the restrictive emotionality aspect of the masculine role was strongly associated with stereotypic beliefs about male sexuality. Other gender role preferences and behaviors were also found to be positively associated with conventional performance approaches to male sexuality. In the second investigation, counseling trainees were asked to describe how mentally healthy adult men and women would respond to the Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale. The responses of both male and female intraining counselors indicated that they expected mentally healthy males: (a) to reject inhibited, control, and constant readiness approaches to the expression of male sexuality and (b) to express greater disagreement toward defining male sexuality exclusively in terms of sexual intercourse and toward viewing males as inherently knowledgeable about sex. These results thus provide evidence for the importance of the SAMSS and a cognitive approach to the study of male sexuality.William E. Snell, Jr., Ph.D. is an assistant professor of psychology in the College of Liberal Arts at Southeast Missouri State University. Sharyn S. Belk is a Ph.D. candidate in social-personality psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Raymond C. Hawkins II, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist at the Austin Regional Clinic in Austin, Texas.Portions of these data were presented at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, and at the XXIII International Congress of Psychology, Acapulco, Mexico.     

Effects of rape victim resistance, assault outcome, and sex of observer on attributions about rape

Perceptions of sexual assault were investigated as a function of sex of observer, nature of victim resistance, and assault outcome. Two hundred twenty-nine subjects were randomly assigned by sex to six resistance x outcome conditions. Hypotheses that women and men apply sex-role stereotypes in evaluating the rape situation were supported: (a) subjects were more certain that rape had occurred as the victim resisted more; (b) subjects attributed greater responsibility to the victim for completed that for attempted rape, while the reverse pattern was found for the assailant; (c) women attributed more responsibility to the assailant than did men; and (d) men attributed less fault and more intelligence, and women attributed more fault and less intelligence to the rape victim as she resisted more forcefully. Attributional terms; fault, blame, and responsibility were found not to be interchangeable. Rape attributions are discussed within the contexts of identification with victim's situation and perceptions of victim's control. Implications for choice of self-defense strategy and treatment of rape victims are also considered.