Rape causal attitudes among adolescents

Abstract

Five possible causes of rape—male dominance, female precipitation, society, male sexuality, and male pathology—were compared among high school students from California. Participants (N = 453) completed a group‐administered questionnaire as part of a rape‐education high school outreach provided by two rape crisis centers. Gender, ethnicity, age, and communication sources about rape, including pornography, were related to attitudes about the causes of rape. Within gender, girls rated male pathology the highest of the five causes of rape, and boys rated female precipitation highest. Between genders, girls rated male pathology and male dominance higher and female precipitation lower than did boys. In particular, both female precipitation and male sexuality scores were related to gender, communicating about rape with parents, exposure to pornography, the number of socializing agents with whom girls have discussed rape, girls’ beliefs that they have learned about sex from pornography, and the number of pornogra...