Attribution of responsibility to a victim of rape

Abstract

Two experimental studies of attribution in a rape situation were conducted. In Study 1,240 graduate students read the case report of a rape and gave their opinions regarding the rapist's punishment and the victim's fault. A provocative victim was attributed greater fault than an unprovocative victim, but this effect of provocativeness was significant only with male subjects judging a low status victim and with female subjects judging a high status victim. In study 2,240 undergraduate students read a case report of a rape and gave their opinions regarding the rapist's punishment and the likelihood of rape. Female subjects recommended longer imprisonment for the rapist than did male subjects. Greater likelihood of rape was indicated with a provocative, rather than unprovocative, victim and female subjects indicated greater likelihood of rape than did male subjects in the case of a physically unattractive victim. The results of the two studies were discussed with reference to defensive attribution and in the light of a proposed distinction between causal and moral responsibility.