Attributions of Responsibility for Date and Stranger Rape.

Bridges, Judith S.; McGrail, Christine A.

This study examined the effects of the victim-perpetrator relationship on college students' attributions of responsibility for rape. In addition, the rape specificity of these attributions was investigated. College females and males read one of six scenarios that depicted a rape or a proposition, and that varied according to the victim-perpetrator relationship (steady dating partners/acquaintances on a first date/strangers). Then they rated seven responsibility attributions for the rape or proposition. Results indicated that most forms of victim responsibility were stronger for the rape and proposition on a date than for the incidents between strangers, and the findings concerning the perpetrator's responsibility were mixed. The pattern of both victim- and perpetrator-responsibility attributions suggests that both a rape and proposition on a date, compared to incidents between strangers, elicit stronger sex role and sexual attributions. Moreover, male subjects, in comparison to female subjects, gave higher ratings to several responsibility attributions, and these, also, are linked to sex role and sexual considerations. Further, the data revealed that only the perpetrator-responsibility attributions were stronger for the rape than the proposition.

WOMEN college students; RESPONSIBILITY; DATE rape; RAPE; SEX crimes; DATING violence; CRIMES against women; OFFENSES against the person; GENDER differences (Psychology) in adolescence; ADOLESCENT psychology

Sex Roles, 1989, Vol 21, Issue 3-4, p273

0360-0025

Academic Journal

10.1007/BF00289907