NCJ Number
102960
Journal
Psychology of Women Quarterly Volume: 10 Dated: (1986) Pages: 101-117
Date Published
1986
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Inmate and community control samples were used to develop a scale of rape attitudes (tolerance of rape) and to validate a modified version of the Gough Socialization Scale. Then the rape attitudes scale and a scale of attitudes toward heterosexual relationships were administered to a university student and adolescent sample to determine factors related to rape tolerance.
Abstract
The inmate sample was randomly selected from rapists and other violent offenders (assault and armed robbery) between 18 and 39 years old admitted to three Wisconsin State prisons during the first half of 1979. The samples consisted of 27 rapists and 19 violent offenders. A control group of 30 men between 19 and 39 years old was selected from the Milwaukee community. Both inmate groups showed a higher level of rape tolerance than the control group. Fifteen items that differentiated the inmate and control groups were selected for the rape attitudes scale. The Gough Socialization did successfully differentiate the inmate and control groups on antisocial and delinquency tendencies. The adolescent sample consisted of 513 females and 460 males aged 14-17, and the university student, 174 females and 119 males. The study used the rape attitudes scale and the scale of attitudes toward heterosexual relationships to determine whether rape tolerance is related to sexist attitudes toward heterosexual relationships, antisocial attitudes, or both. For males and females in both samples, rape tolerance was associated with sexist attitudes toward heterosexual relationships. For the male adolescents, rape tolerance and sexist attitudes were related to antisocial, delinquent personality tendencies. Scales, tabular data, and 32 references.