Attributing Blame to Incest Victims: the Mediating Role of Child Sexual Abuse Myths and Stereotypes

• NCJ Number: 217072
• Journal: Acta Criminologica Volume: 19 Issue: 3 Dated: 2006 Pages: 1-10
• Author(s): S. J. Collings
• Date Published: 2006
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: To access the full text PDF: 1) select the provided link; 2) from the Acta Criminologica Web site, select "Table of Contents"; 3) select the corresponding Volume and Issue (see the NCJRS abstract record for the exact Volume and Issue); 4) scroll the Table of Contents to the exact article; and 5) click on the "full text" icon. Downloaded on January 23, 2007.

Annotation

This study investigated the mediating effects of child sexual abuse (CSA) myths and stereotypes on incest blame attributions.

Abstract

The results of this study showed that: (1) the inclusion of child sexual abuse (CSA) myth scale scores in the prediction model was associated with a significant increase in the explained variance for both causal blame and moral responsibility; (2) abuse characteristics and myth acceptance scores contributed independently towards the explained variance in causal attributions; and (3) after controlling for myth acceptance scores, there was no significant main or interaction effects of abuse characteristics on attributions of moral responsibility to the victim. The findings replicate and extend the results of previous studies which indicated that acknowledgments of blame to incest victims were more likely in situations where the attributing agent was male, where the child was older, and where the child exhibited low levels of resistance. Although a number of researchers have suggested that CSA attributions are also likely to be influenced by culturally mediated myths and stereotypes, there have been few systematic attempts to test this hypothesis. The objective of this study was two-fold: (1) to replicate previous findings regarding the effect of abuse characteristics on CSA attributions; and (2) to assess the relative importance of abuse characteristics and CSA myth acceptance on attributional thinking. It was expected that CSA myth acceptance would account for a significant proportion of the explained variance in victim-blame attributions. References