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Abstract
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Past research investigating victim blame has shown that there is a tendency for people to hold female victims of rape partly responsible for the attack. The vast majority of the studies have involved college undergraduates reading fictitious vignettes and then rating the victim's responsibility. The purpose of the present study was to use meta-analysis to determine the degree of responsibility third party observers assign to a female rape victim, and to determine which additional variables moderate the tendency to blame the victim. Specifically, the victim's clothing revealingness, character, physical attractiveness, and acquaintance with her attacker were analyzed. Results showed that the victim's clothing revealingness and character significantly affect the tendency to blame the victim. Implications for future research investigating victim blame and theories of victim blame are discussed.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
This aim of this study by Whatley was to use meta-analysis to combine the findings of previous studies and determine the amount of responsibility that third party observers attributed to a female rape victim. In addition, this research analyzed the degree to which additional variables affected tendencies to blame the victim.
METHODOLOGY:
The author conducted a quasi-experimental study. The following four variables associated with victim blame were studied: physical attractiveness of the victim, how revealing her clothes were, moral character of the victim, and her acquaintance with the rapist. In the meta-analysis, the author included studies (1973-1995) that asked psychology undergraduates to rate victim responsibility after reading brief scenarios. The analysis of "clothing revealingness" included 8 studies that manipulated the dress, mannerisms or revealingness of clothing to make the victim more seductive. The analysis of moral character included 20 studies that manipulated the victims moral actions. The analysis of physical attractiveness included 14 studies that manipulated victims' attractiveness through either written descriptions or photographs. Lastly, the analysis of acquaintance level included 14 studies that manipulated the relationship between the attacker and victim. For all categories, studies that failed to report effect size were omitted.
Responsibility was operationally defined as an actor intentionally causing an action. The main hypothesis was that males attributed a greater degree of responsibility to the victim than did females. It was also hypothesized that victims who were judged to possess the following traits would be more likely to be held responsible: revealing clothing, questionable character, physical unattractiveness and acquaintance with the attacker.
The data was analyzed with the Sign test, the Fail-safe N, and chi-square.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The author reported the following findings on the four variables. First, clothing revealingness was found to significantly increase the respondents' assignment of victim responsibility. Second, victims perceived as less moral/respectable were significantly assigned more responsible for the attacks (p<.01). Third, it was found that other variables moderate the effect of victim's physical attractiveness on respondents' assignment of responsibility (p<.01). Fourth, victims acquainted with their attackers were not assigned significantly more responsibility.
AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
The author recommended that the problem of blaming female rape victims be addressed as a social problem, stemming from economic and political inequalities that negatively effect American women. The author suggested that future studies examine the causal impacts of sexist attitudes, violence against women and sexual exploitation of womens bodies on respondents' assignment of responsibility to female rape victims.
EVALUATION:
In general, this study provides some important findings on the blaming of female rape victims. The generalizability of this study is limited by the small number of articles examined for each variable. In conclusion, this study offers the first meta-analysis of female rape victim blame. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Female Victim
KW - Rape Victim
KW - Rape Effects
KW - Sexual Assault Effects
KW - Sexual Assault Victim
KW - Victim Characteristics
KW - Victim Blaming
KW - 1970s
KW - 1980s
KW - 1990s
KW - Victim Appearance
KW - Victim Clothing
KW - Physical Attractiveness
KW - Victim Offender Relationship
KW - Public Perceptions
KW - Perceptions About Victim
KW - Rape Perceptions
KW - Sexual Assault Perceptions
KW - Adult Perceptions
KW - Victim Responsibility
KW - Violence Against Women |