Citation

Wager NM. Violence Vict. 2019; 34(6): 992-1010.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, England.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Springer Publishing)

DOI

10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-13-00055

PMID

31836647

Abstract

This study investigated whether attitudes toward a complainant of sexual assault are affected by the knowledge that the complainant had previously made a similar allegation. This was a 3 (previous allegation; none, child sexual assault or adult sexual assault) × 2 (whether the previous allegation was substantiated) × 2 (the implied mental health status of the complainant; mental health issue vs. none) multifactorial, experimental study, employing independent-measures and hypothetical vignettes depicting stranger rape scenarios. The dependent variables were victim-blame and believability. The participants were 243 female undergraduate students. A multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) revealed several main and interactive effects. Allegations of sexual revictimization were associated with different levels of victim-blame and believability depending on when the previous assault occurred. A history of childhood sexual assault reduced the believability of the complainant and when combined with other factors increased the tendency to attribute victim-blame.

© Copyright 2019 Springer Publishing Company, LLC.

Language: en

Keywords

child sexual assault; false allegation; rape complainant; sexual revictimization; victim-blame