Teaching Women a Lesson

Abstract

Date and acquaintance rape is a pervasive problem on college campuses. This study assessed the influence of both situational factors and individual differences on college men's perceptions of acquaintance and date rape scenarios. Onset of refusal and duration of relationship factors were found to have influenced men's perceptions of victim and perpetrator accountability as well as their likelihood to label a situation rape. In addition, differences were found in perceptions of men who self-reported engaging in sexually aggressive behaviors and men who did not self-report engaging in sexually aggressive behaviors. Interpretation of findings considered both token resistance and male entitlement explanations.

The impact of victim-perpetrator relationship, reputation and initial point of resistance on officers' responsibility and authenticity ratings towards hypothetical rape cases

“…Effect sizes for many of the results related to this variable were also the largest found in this study, further emphasizing the strength of differences found. This study is the first to directly examine the impact of this specific case characteristic on officer judgments, and results are in line with judgments made in previous studies using non-specialist populations (Kopper, 1996;Shotland & Goodstein, 1983;Yescavage, 1999). Importantly, these results suggest that officers' evaluations are substantially influenced by the timing of resistance, possibly due to the perceived associations between resistance and consent.…”

“…This is especially exaggerated in studies that present a 'seduction rape' scenario, where women engage in particularly 'forward' and passionate behaviour before refusal (Grubb & Harrower, 2009). In addition, participants are less likely to perceive the encounter as rape when a victim is described as resisting 'late' (Shotland & Goodstein, 1983) and are less likely to believe that the sexual assault could have been avoided (Yescavage, 1999).…”

“…Additionally, several studies have demonstrated that participants judge non-consensual hypothetical sexual encounters differently based on the timing of victim resistance. Victims are judged as more responsible and accountable for their victimization when they are described as offering resistance later in an encounter, and perpetrators are held less responsible in these scenarios (Kopper, 1996;Shotland & Goodstein, 1983;Yescavage, 1999). This is especially exaggerated in studies that present a 'seduction rape' scenario, where women engage in particularly 'forward' and passionate behaviour before refusal (Grubb & Harrower, 2009).…”

Consent, wantedness, and pleasure: Three dimensions affecting the perceived stress of and judgements of rape in sexual encounters.

“…Rape can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and suicidal ideation (Jejeebhoy & Bott, 2003). Believing that stranger rape is more psychologically distressing may increase tolerance of acquaintance rape (Paludi, 2008; Sleath & Bull, 2010; Yescavage, 1999). Males, in particular, have been found to perceive that when in a romantic relationship they have more right to have sex and the victim has less right to say no than when not in a romantic relationship (Grubb & Harrower, 2008; Sheldon-Keller, Lloyd-Mcgarvey, West, & Canterbury, 1994).…”

Perceptions of Incapacitated Heterosexual Sexual Assault

“…In addition, harsher punishments are recommended for strangers than acquaintances (Ben-David & Schneider, 2005;Cowan, 2000a;Viki et al, 2004), and the victims themselves are blamed more if the perpetrator is an acquaintance (Bell, Kuriloff, & Lottes, 1994;Ben-David & Schneider, 2005;Cowan, 2000a), even by the police (Sleath & Bull, 2012). Even the context within dating relationships appears to matter, as victims are attributed more responsibility, perpetrators are attributed less responsibility and blamed less, and the incident is less likely to be labeled "rape," if the couple was previously sexually active than if they were not (Yescavage, 1999).…”