Attribution of Responsibility to Rapist and Victim: The Influence of Victim's Attractiveness and Rape-Related Information

• NCJ Number: 107884
• Journal: Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1987) Pages: 243-250
• Author(s): P A Ferguson; D A Duthie; R G Graf
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 8 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study tested the hypothesis that providing information on the prevalent motives for rape (power and anger) will influence observers' attribution of responsibility to a rape victim.

Abstract

Forty male introductory psychology students were randomly assigned to one of four groups: rape motivation information (informed, uninformed) and attractiveness of the target victim (attractive, unattractive). The rape motivation information consisted of two and one-half typed pages describing the psychodynamics of the motivations of each type of rape written in an informational style. Two photographs were used to depict the victim's physical attractiveness. All subjects completed a 5-item questionnaire that measured responsibility for the rape on a 7-point scale. Three items measured the victim's responsibility for the rape, and one measured the rapist's responsibility. Prior to this, all subjects read a description of an alleged rape. The analysis of variance suggested that information about rape motivation decreases the amount of responsibility observers attribute to the victim. 1 table and 26 references.