Attitudes Toward Various Modes of Coping with Criminal Victimization: The Effects of Gender and Type of Crime

Abstract

Two studies investigated attitudes toward crime victims' modes of coping. In the first experiment involving 1 76 college students (67 men and 109 women), we tested the hypothesis that participants would favor strategies consistent with their gender role and experience, and that such attitudes would vary with the nature of the crime. Participants read a short narrative describing a criminal victimization (burglary, robbery, rape) of a female student and then rated their approval of 26 modes of coping that she might employ. Factor analysis of these ratings identified seven modes: Social Withdrawal, Denial, Self-Blame, Active Coping, Hardening the Target, Avoidance, and Downward Comparison. Results revealed that men were more approving than women of coping strategies aimed at maintaining an agentic appearance, whereas women were more approving of strategies aimed at risk reduction and that reflected a communal orientation. Type of crime did not modify these gender differences. In a second experiment involving a more heterogeneous sample of 223 participants (84 men and 139 women), we attempted to replicate and extend these findings by adding victim's gender as an independent variable. Using the same methodology employed in Experiment 1, results replicated the factor structure obtained in the first experiment as well as participant gender differences. However, a significant four-way interaction effect showed that attitudes were qualified by specific features of the situation, such as the nature of the crime and the victim's gender. The implications of the findings for victims' strategic self-presentation of coping are discussed.