Rapists' Versus Non-Rapists' Attitudes Toward Women: A British Study

Abstract

Three groups (incarcerated rapists, incarcerated non-rapists and nonincarcerated controls) were administered and completed Parry's (1983) Anglicized version of Spence, Helmreich and Stapp's (1973) Attitudes Towards Women Scale. Results of the seventy-one subjects showed that the incarcerated non-rapist group held the most traditional/conservative attitudes towards women. The present findings are discussed in terms of feminist viewpoint, current sociopolitical issues and cross-Atlantic research differences in relation to rape.

Self-serving aspects of social cognition among adult offenders

“…In other words, self-serving definitions of deviant social behaviour may ease the cognitive discomfort produced by the offending behaviour. The strength of the behaviourÁ cognition relationship observed in the sexual offender group in this study is important as previous research had difficulty in discriminating this type of offender from other types in terms of some cognitive variables (Harmon, Owens, & Dewey, 1995;Marolla & Scully, 1986).…”

A review of cognitive factors in the etiology of rape

“…Although no distinction was made between adult-oriented and child-oriented sex offenders in the primary analysis, subsequent analyses showed that the groups did not differ on any of the attitude measures. In a British study by Harmon, Owens, and Dewey (1995), rapists were found to have less traditional attitudes toward the role of women in society than other imprisoned offenders. No attitudinal differences were found between rapists and a nonoffender control group.…”

Social cognition in violent and sexual offending: an overview

“…A number of studies have been unable to statistically discriminate rapists from various offender and community comparison groups (see Harmon, Owens, & Dewey, 1995;Sattem, Savells, & Murray, 1984). Marolla and Scully (1986) and Bumby (1996) have reported some of the only findings hinting that rapists' cognitions may be different from comparison groups.…”