Predicting Perceptions of Date Rape

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to examine the influence of multiple offender motivations (including no indication of a motivation), relationship length, and gender role beliefs on perceptions of a male-on-female date rape. A sample of 348 U.S. college students read a brief vignette depicting a date rape and completed a questionnaire regarding their attributions about the victim (culpability, credibility, trauma, pleasure) and perpetrator (culpability, guilt, sentencing recommendations). Results indicate that providing observers with information about the perpetrator's motivation was associated with lower victim blame. Relationship length is not predictive of rape attributions. Egalitarian gender role attitudes are associated with lower levels of victim blame. Overall, gender role attitudes exert a more significant influence on rape attributions than participant gender. The findings suggest that knowledge of an offender's motivation as well as observers' gender role attitudes can influence attributions about the culpability of victims and perpetrators of date rape.

Employing mixed methods to explore motivational patterns of repeat sex offenders

“…Contemplating offender motivation beyond just "a given" may inform prevention efforts by indicating which environments or situations potentiate the occurrence of a criminal event. As a result, risk prevention and victim recovery strategies built upon empirically-grounded knowledge regarding offender motivation could enhance social understanding, reduce victim blaming, and strengthen individual self-efficacy (Angelone et al, 2012). Knowledge regarding variation in offender motivations for sexual assault could also enhance prevention efforts targeting potential offenders.…”

“…For example, Mitchell et al (2009) found that victims of rape by strangers were perceived as more culpable in sexually-motivated offenses than in violence-driven sex offenses. This disparity in victim blame is considered a consequence of the notion that sexually-motivated offenses are more likely to be prompted by victim characteristics and behaviors than violence-driven offenses; thereby inferring that victims are more culpable in cases of sexually-motivated crimes (Angelone et al, 2012;Mitchell et al, 2009). Providing even more compelling evidence of the impact of any knowledge regarding offender motivation on victim blame, Angelone et al (2012) found "simply providing knowledge of the perpetrator's motivation [whether sexual or non-sexual] was associated with decreased perceptions of the victim's culpability and increased perceptions of the victim's credibility in a case involving date rape" (p. 2595).…”

“…Relatedly, accurate or inaccurate knowledge regarding criminal motivations of sex offenders plays a key role in societal perceptions of victim culpability and offender responsibility. Recent studies have evaluated the impact of different types of offender motivation on public perception of victim blame for sex crimes (Angelone, Mitchell, & Lucente, 2012;Mitchell, Angelone, Kohlberger, & Hirschman, 2009;Sizemore, 2013). For example, Mitchell et al (2009) found that victims of rape by strangers were perceived as more culpable in sexually-motivated offenses than in violence-driven sex offenses.…”

Explicating the Role of Sexual Coercion and Vulnerability Alcohol Expectancies in Rape Attributions

“…Alcohol expectancies only explained a small amount of variance in perpetrator blame (adjusted R 2 = .06), although the effect size increased notably by the inclusion of gender role attitudes and rape myth acceptance (to adjusted R 2 = .12). Rape-perception researchers that examine the role of beliefs and attitudes often report small to moderate effect sizes (e.g., Angelone et al, 2012); however, it should nevertheless be emphasized that there are multiple other factors that impact on these evaluations. For victim blame, sexual coercion expectancy was a unique and robust predictor which also contributed to the moderate and large effect sizes of the preliminary and secondary regression models (adjusted R 2 = .14 and .28), respectively.…”

“…; Pollard, 1992). There is increasing consensus that traditional gender role attitudes are more important than biological sex in explaining people’s perceptions of rape (see, for example, Angelone, Mitchell, & Lucente, 2012).…”