NCJ Number
89998
Journal
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1982) Pages: 134-139
Date Published
1982
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This study investigates predictions that judgments of the seriousness of rape will be inversely related to the amount of the victim's past sexual experience and that rape will be adjudged less serious when the rapist and victim are involved in a dating or intimate relationship.
Abstract
A total of 650 respondents made judgments about a rape after reading one of several simulated newspaper accounts. They judged rape within either a dating or an intimate context to be less serious than rape by a stranger. Rape was judged less serious when the victim's sexual history was described as either limited or extensive than when this information was not given. Female respondents judged the rape to be more serious than did males. One table, 23 references, and 3 notes are supplied. (Author abstract modified)