Influence of the Victim's Consumption of Alcohol on Perceptions of Stranger and Acquaintance Rape

• NCJ Number: 163243
• Journal: Violence Against Women Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1995) Pages: 241-253
• Author(s): C A Scronce; K J Corcoran
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 13 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study was conducted to clarify the influence of victim alcohol consumption, familiarity with attacker, and outcome of attack on participants' attributions about rape in nondating situations by systematically manipulating these variables in scenarios read by subjects.

Abstract

A total of 218 male and 227 female undergraduates from an introductory psychology course at a large midwestern State university received course credit for participation in this study. Participants were divided into groups of 5 to 20, which varied in gender composition. Each participant was given a packet that contained demographic background questions, a hypothetical scenario that involved completed rape or attempted rape, and questions that related to their impressions of the story and the characters. Participants were randomly assigned by gender to read one of eight scenarios that varied the victim's beverage prior to the incident (beer versus diet soda), the victim's relationship to the attacker (stranger versus acquaintance), and the outcome of the attack (completed rape versus attempted rape). Each scenario described a situation in which a female college student spends time with female friends at a local bar. Participants were asked to rate on 4-point Likert-type scales the degree to which they thought the woman was responsible for the incident and the degree to which the incident should be considered rape or attempted rape in those scenarios in which rape did not occur. The findings suggest that alcohol consumption by a victim of sexual assault may lead to more negative attributions about the victim. The alcohol-consuming victim was viewed as more careless and, at least by female subjects, as more culpable for the attack. An assault by an acquaintance was less likely to be labeled as rape than an attack by a stranger, but acquaintance rape was also less likely to be perceived as the victim's fault. Either outcome information or the level of the victim's resistance also influenced judgments about victim culpability and the degree of certainty that the incident should be labeled as rape. 1 table and 23 references