Attitudes concerning crimes related to clothing worn by female victims

Abstract

Male and female college students were shown one of two slides featuring a female model wearing either sexy or nonsexy clothes. The subjects were then asked to answer a set of questions based upon the supposition that the model might be either robbed or raped. Responses indicated that the model wearing sexually oriented clothes was seen as more likely to be either robbed or raped, more likely to provoke such an attack, and more likely to be responsible for the attack if she were to be assaulted. Furthermore, the model's assailant was held to be less accountable if the model was assaulted while wearing sexy clothes than while wearing sexually conservative clothes. The results are discussed with respect to attribution theory and the literature concerning crimes against women, particularly rape.

Male-female estimates of opposite-sex first impressions concerning females’ clothing styles

“…The results were consistent with studies describing a generally negative bias toward women wearing provocative clothing (Edmonds & Cahoon, 1986). While the FIRST IMPRESSIONS 281 model in the sexy-clothing condition was judged to be more attractive and sexually appealing to men, she was viewed more negatively with respect to age of first intercourse, sexual teasing, extent of sexual activity, using sex for personal gain, and faithfulness in marriage.…”

“…While the FIRST IMPRESSIONS 281 model in the sexy-clothing condition was judged to be more attractive and sexually appealing to men, she was viewed more negatively with respect to age of first intercourse, sexual teasing, extent of sexual activity, using sex for personal gain, and faithfulness in marriage. The sexy model was also viewed as more likely to be raped or robbed, a finding previously reported by Edmonds & Cahoon (1986) . Male and female raters tended to agree in their judgments although men rated the model positively on more items than she was rated by the female subjects.…”

“…The other slide featured the same model in a revealing dress that might be considered sexy or provocative. A previous study (Edmonds & Cahoon, 1986) had confirmed the assessments of the two clothing styles as sexy and nonsexy and had revealed no differences in ratings of the clothing sty les with the model's face obscured or with the photograph unaltered. The slides were therefore cropped at neck level in order to minimize cues related to facial expression.…”

Sexual Objectification Increases Rape Victim Blame and Decreases Perceived Suffering

“…Attractive and provocatively dressed women are held more responsible for being raped than unattractive, demurely dressed women (Brems & Wagner, 1994;Edmonds & Cahoon, 1986;Tieger, 1981;Workman & Freeburg, 1999). Although the link between sexualization and victim blame has been known for almost 30 years (Edmonds & Cahoon, 1986), no known studies have examined the psychological processes linking sexualization to increased victim blame. We propose that attractive and provocatively dressed women are objectified and therefore seen as lesser victims compared to non-objectified women.…”

The Effect of Victims' Social Support on Attributions of Blame in Female and Male Rape

“…Findings from this 'rape perception program' of research (for reviews see Pollard, 1992;Ward, 1995) have revealed that most people's rape-related judgments are affected by a number of factors extraneous to the actual rape incident such as the Perceived support and rape judgements 4 victim's occupational status (Luginbuhl & Mullin, 1981), physical appearance (Deitz, Littman & Bentley, 1984;Tieger, 1981), prior sexual experience (Borgida & White, 1978;Cann, Calhoun & Selby, 1979;L'Armand & Pepitone, 1982), degree of resistance (Van Wie & Gross, 1995;Wyer, Bodenhausen & Gorman, 1985;Yescavage, 1999), intoxication (Richardson & Campbell, 1982;Stormo & Lang, 1997) and dress at the time of the rape (Edmonds & Cahoon, 1986;Workman & Freeburg, 1999). It is typical for victims who were, for example, "drunk" or "high" at the time of their rape not to report the incident, especially not to official agencies such as the police, for fear of reprisal and blame (Schwartz & DeKeseredy, 1997).…”