Attitudes toward rape victims among University of Namibia students

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A common misunderstanding about rape is that the perpetrator is driven by a sexual desire motivated by the victim’s seductive dressing or behaviour. The damaging impact of rape on the victim not only affects the victim’s emotional, psychological and physical state, but its ripple effects impact the larger systems of families, friends and life partners. The literature on studies of attitudes toward rape shows that there is an overall negative attitude towards rape victims leading to discrimination, stigma and, consequently, under-reporting of rape. The main focus of the present study was to investigate university students’ attitude toward rape victims. Furthermore, the study sought to explore gender differences in acceptance of rape victims. A convenience sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 131 students between the ages of 19-38 years. The sociodemographic questionnaire and Attitudes Towards Rape Victims Scale (ATRVS) were self-administered to collect quantitative data and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. The results indicate that male students have significantly higher unfavourable attitudes towards rape victims in comparison to females. Most of the rape victims are judged by what they wear and their location. However, both genders showed an acceptance of rape victims, even though a small number of males indicated “mildly disagree” on the scale. To be effective at reducing victimization, results strongly suggest rape awareness programs and interventions targeting society’s attitude and ways of dealing with a victim. Without community involvement and change in societal attitudes toward rape, legal policies will remain ineffective.