Citation

Pryor DW, Hughes MR. Violence Vict. 2013; 28(3): 443-465.

Affiliation

Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Criminal Justice, Towson University, Towson, MD 21252-0001, USA. dpryor@towson.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Springer Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

23862309

Abstract

This article examines social psychological underpinnings of fear of rape among college women. We analyze data from a survey of 1,905 female undergraduates to test the influence of 5 subjective perceptions about vulnerability and harm: unique invulnerability, gender risk, defensibility, anticipatory shame, and attribution of injury. We include 3 sources of crime exposure in our models: past sexual victimization, past noncontact violent victimization, and structural risk measured by age, parent's income, and race. Separate measures of fear of stranger and acquaintance rape are modeled, including variables tapping current versus anticipatory fear, fear on campus versus everywhere, and fear anytime versus at night. The data show that fear of rape among college women appears more grounded in constructed perceptions of harm and danger than in past violent experiences.

Language: en