The Impact of the Bystander’s Relationship With the Victim and the Perpetrator on Intent to Help in Situations Involving Sexual Violence

Abstract

A large body of research has explored the individual and situational factors that influence bystander intervention for sexual violence. However, little research has explored the how the bystander's relationship to the victim and the perpetrator impacts helping. To explore this gap in the literature, the present study used vignettes to experimentally manipulate the bystander's relationship to the victim, and the bystander's relationship to the perpetrator to examine how these factors impact intent to help in low (i.e., unwanted contact) and high (i.e., situation at high risk of rape) severity situations of sexual violence. The gender of the bystander was also examined by recruiting a sample of women and men. Results suggested that bystanders were more likely to intervene when the situation was more severe and when the bystander was female. Results were mixed regarding intent to help when the bystander knew the victim or the perpetrator. Moreover, these factors interacted in complicated ways such that, for example, women are equally likely to intend to help a victim whether they know the perpetrator or not while men are more likely to help a victim if the perpetrator is someone they do not know. The results of this study suggest that bystander intervention for situations involving sexual violence are complex and future research should further tease out the moderating effects. Prevention programs using a bystander framework may need some segments of training that are more gender specific and that directly address the relationship between the bystander and the victim and perpetrator.

Perceptions of Community Norms and Youths’ Reactive and Proactive Dating and Sexual Violence Bystander Action

“…Variation in frequency of actionist behavior relative to norms may also be related to whether the behavior in question was something relatively easy to do—such as posting on social media that DSV is not acceptable—or if the behavior was something that requires more courage or skill, such as asking someone if they needed help. These findings are similar to those of prior studies that have found that the likelihood that people will take action to prevent or intervene in DSV situations varies by context, such as the relationship between the individual and the victim or perpetrator (Bennett & Banyard, ; Bennett, Banyard, & Edwards, ).…”

Disaggregating Mass Public Shootings: A Comparative Analysis of Disgruntled Employee, School, Ideologically motivated, and Rampage Shooters

“…Research has consistently shown ideologically motivated mass public shooters to be particularly methodical and lethal (3,9,10,34). According to Osborne and Capellan (3), offenders motivated by ideological extremism are very patient and unlikely to attack because of a precipitating event.…”

Social norms are enforced by friends: The effect of relationship closeness on bystanders’ tendency to confront perpetrators of uncivil, immoral, and discriminatory behaviors

“…First of all, confronting a friend might ruin the friendship. Bennett, Banyard, and Edwards (2017) showed that men are more likely to help a sexual violence victim if the perpetrator is a stranger, rather than a friend. The bystander literature discusses that individuals weigh costs and benefits of taking action before deciding to intervene (Ashburn-Nardo, Blanchar, Petersson, Morris, & Goodwin, 2014).…”

“…And the closer the relationship between bystander and perpetrator the greater the cost of intervention. Bennett, Banyard, and Edwards (2017) showed that men are more likely to help a sexual violence victim if the perpetrator is a stranger, rather than a friend. Similarly, Bennett and Banyard (2016) found that participants with a close relationship with the perpetrator perceived the situation involving sexual violence as less problematic.…”