Attribution of Responsibility to Victims of Rape

• NCJ Number: 72113
• Author(s): P A Kaplan
• Date Published: 1977
• Length: 164 pages
• Sale Source: UMI Dissertation Services
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Boston University School of Education - doctoral dissertation

Annotation

The study explores the relationship between attitudes toward the role of woman and the extent of responsibility attributed to victims of rape for having been raped. It also measures the effects of the course, 'Victimology and Crisis Counseling,' on attitudes toward women and rape.

Abstract

Research was conducted in 1976 at a large, private, eastern university. The experimental group consisted of 31 students enrolled in the nursing school victimology course, and the comparison group contained 30 students enrolled in another nursing school course entitled 'the Pharmacologic Basis of Patient Care.' Two instruments were administered as pre and posttest measures: the Attitudes Toward Women Scale, developed by Spence and Helmreich in 1972; and the Traditional and Nontraditional Forms of Attribution of Responsibility to Victims of Rape Scale, developed by the author and employing 10 traditional and 10 nontraditional views of victim behavior. Findings show that students who held traditional attitudes toward women's roles viewed all victims of rape as significantly more responsible for having been raped than did subjects whose attitudes were nontraditional. In addition, subjects who held nontraditional attitudes toward the role of women viewed the victims whose behaviors were traditional. The victimology course did not change the attitudes of the experimental group subjects toward the women's role or the extent to which victims of rape were blamed for the crime. Overall, six prerape victim behaviors were identified as contributing to the extent to which victims were held responsible for the act: (1) accepting a ride from a man in a singles bar, (2) answering an ad for companionship, (3) accompanying a man to his apartment, (4) drinking with a man in a bar, (5) engaging in sexual foreplay, and (6) agreeing to engage in sex, then changing her mind. Further research in this area is needed. Tabular data, over 30 references, and appendixes presenting study instruments and related information are included. (Author abstract modified)