Effects of perpetrator characteristics and participants belief in a just world on blame attribution of rape victims

• Rape victims are often the subject of secondary victimization when being blamed for their assaults. In an experiment using a community sample (N=161), we investigated the effect of perpetrator characteristics; age and previous conviction, participants gender and belief in a just world on blame attributions using a vignette methodology. Results show that female participants attributed most victim blame when the perpetrator had a previous conviction, although male participants attributed most victim blame when the perpetrator had no such history. It seems as features of the perpetrator can influence allocation of victim blame and that gender of the observer also matters.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

rape blame

perpetrator characteristics

belief in a just world

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)