Hispanic and Majority Student Attitudes Toward Forcible Date Rape as a Function of Differences in Attitudes Toward Women

• NCJ Number: 108040
• Journal: Sex Roles Volume: 17 Issue: 1-2 Dated: (1987) Pages: 93-101
• Author(s): G J Fischer
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 9 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Paper presented at meetings of the Midwestern Psychological Association, May 1987, Chicago

Annotation

This study examined the relationship between attitudes toward date rape and traditional (sex-role stereotyped) attitudes toward women using data for 90 Hispanic and 200 majority (Anglo-American or Caucasian) University of New Mexico students.

Abstract

Overall, Hispanics had more traditional attitudes toward women and less rejecting attitudes toward forcible date rape. However, these effects were not a simple function of ethnicity, at least for males. For example, bicultural and bilingual Hispanic males were least likely to blame the male for date rape, but were no less rejecting of such behavior than other Hispanic males and had no more traditional attitudes toward women than other Hispanic or majority males. Bicultural and bilingual Hispanic females, on the other hand, were most likely to blame the male, had the least rejecting attitudes toward date rape, and had the most traditional attitudes toward women. An interpretation of these findings is that exposure to less restrictive sex roles of the majority culture is a liberating influence on Hispanic females, but not Hispanic males, who may see more liberal attitudes toward women as having no or a negative payoff. 4 tables and 8 references. (Author abstract modified)