Measurement of empathy toward rape victims and rapists.

Measuring Rape Empathy Among University Men in Vietnam

“…Each item requires the respondent to endorse one of two paired statements, with endorsement of the victim empathy statement receiving a score of 1 and endorsement of the rapist empathy statement scored 0. In a convenience sample of 95% Caucasian university undergraduates, the scale had high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .84; Deitz et al, 1982), and construct validity was confirmed through moderate correlations with the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (Spence et al, 1973) and the Rape Responsibility Questionnaire (Deitz & Byrnes, 1981). While rape empathy, as assessed by the RES, is reported as a unidimensional summative score, its measurement properties, including dimensionality, have not been formally assessed.…”

“…Rape Victim Empathy Among Prior Victims and Perpetrators Empathy for rape victims has been found to be consistently greater among women than among men and greater among women who have experienced rape than among those who have not (Deitz et al, 1982;Osman, 2011Osman, , 2020Smith & Frieze, 2003). Because disclosure of rape perpetration is uncommon, small subgroup sample sizes have limited the ability to test relationships between past perpetration and rape empathy (Grune, 2012;Osman, 2020;Smith & Frieze, 2003).…”

“…The clear conceptualization and accurate measurement of rape empathy is important because low empathy for victims is a correlate of sexually aggressive behavior (Hanson, 2003; Malamuth et al, 2021). Conceptualizing and measuring empathy for victims of sexual violence is also important because levels of victim empathy may affect the decisions of jurors in rape trials (Deitz et al, 1982) and of bystanders when they consider intervening to prevent sexual violence (Leone et al, 2020). Moreover, rape empathy is often used as a short-term outcome to evaluate sexual violence prevention programs (Carich et al., 2004; Salazar et al, 2019; Vladutiu et al, 2011; Yount et al, 2020), including when measures of actual behavior are lacking.…”

“…The Rape Empathy Scale (RES) is the most commonly referenced measure of rape empathy (Patterson et al, 2021; Stephens & George, 2009; Wright et al, 2020), cited in 465 publications (including gray literature) as of May 2023, according to Google Scholar. The RES measures empathy toward victims and rapists in a heterosexual rape situation (Deitz et al, 1982) and is the only measure of rape empathy used in peer-reviewed evaluations of college sexual violence prevention programs targeting men (Wright et al, 2020). The RES consists of 19 items, designed to reflect “the relative tendency for subjects to assume the psychological perspective of the rape victim or the assailant” (Deitz et al, 1982, p. 374), rather than a two- or multidimensional model of rape empathy.…”

“…The RES measures empathy toward victims and rapists in a heterosexual rape situation (Deitz et al, 1982) and is the only measure of rape empathy used in peer-reviewed evaluations of college sexual violence prevention programs targeting men (Wright et al, 2020). The RES consists of 19 items, designed to reflect “the relative tendency for subjects to assume the psychological perspective of the rape victim or the assailant” (Deitz et al, 1982, p. 374), rather than a two- or multidimensional model of rape empathy. Each item requires the respondent to endorse one of two paired statements, with endorsement of the victim empathy statement receiving a score of 1 and endorsement of the rapist empathy statement scored 0.…”