Rape Myth Acceptance Research Articles

College Students' Responses to Their Sexually Assaulted Friends: Impact of Rape Myth Acceptance, Prior Victimization, and Social Relationships.

College students often confide in their friends following sexual assaults. Friends' reactions may include a variety of emotions and helping behaviors; prior victimization, knowing the accused, and rape myth acceptance may affect these. A sample of 1016 students at a religiously affiliated university completed quantitative surveys measuring their rape myth acceptance, history of sexual assault victimization, disclosures received, and reactions to the most recent disclosure. A subset of 636 students (506 females, 130 males) reported receiving at least one rape disclosure from a friend. Regression analysis of the subset revealed that participants' rape myth acceptance, victimization histories, and relationships to the accused influenced reactions to friends who were sexually assaulted. Students who endorsed rape myths were less likely to lend support to survivors; they were also more likely to experience shame and anger, and to blame their sexually assaulted friends. Students who shared friends with both the survivor and the accused were more likely to offer support to the survivor, experience feelings of divided loyalty, and blame the survivor. Blaming or feeling embarrassed toward survivors was associated with a tendency to advise them on how to avoid revictimization. This suggests that some disclosure recipients focused on their friend's behavior to explain the sexual assault. Cognitive dissonance theory may partially explain the findings.

Educating High School Black Males From Within the #MeToo Movement

The education of Black male high school students is presently occurring in the context of the #MeToo movement. Recent reports of inappropriate sexual conduct by high profile men, including Black men, have generated heightened awareness, confusion, anxiety, and ambivalence among Black males regarding what behavior is acceptable toward girls and women and related consequences of such behavior. In high school, when identity and interpersonal relationship skills are still relatively early in development, this apparent ambiguity potentially interferes with learning processes, helping to undermine educational equity for Black males. With this mixed-methods documentary intervention research study, we assessed the impact of the short, educational documentary My Masculinity Helps (MMH) on Black male high school students in reducing rape myth acceptance and affirming active bystander attitudes and behaviors. MMH explores the role of Black men and boys in the prevention of sexual violence. Findings suggest that participants developed a more accurate understanding of consent and sexual assault, and more affirmative attitudes toward active bystander behavior, such as helping someone who has been sexually assaulted or wanting to engage in prevention strategies. We provide implications for school counselors using the American School Counselor Association National Model.

To add insult to injury: Stigmatization reinforces the trauma of rape survivors - Findings from the DR Congo.

Background: Survivors of sexual violence are frequently condemned and socially excluded. Myths about rape may translate into stigmatization, diminish disclosure, prevent help-seeking from support structures and worsen mental health. Areas of conflict or organized violence remain the evident hotspots of sexual victimization. However, little is known about prevalence and predictors of rape myths in these settings or their association with survivors’ disclosure, stigmatization and psychopathology. Method: Between September 2018 and May 2019, we assessed in a representative sample of 1066 individuals from six communities in Eastern DRC traumatic exposure, sexual perpetration, threats to social integrity, perceived stigmatization (perceived lack of social acknowledgement, shame), stigmatizing attitudes towards survivors (negative attitudes and willingness to provide support, rape myths acceptance), and mental illness (PTSD, depression). Results: Survivors of sexual violence (33%, n = 184 of women, 16%, n = 84 of men) reported more traumatic exposure, threats to social integrity, shame, perceived lack of social acknowledgement, PTSD symptoms and depression. Their social environment affirmed various stigmatizing attitudes (5-89% affirmations). Beliefs in rape myths were predicted by its average acceptance in the community, education, and witness of others’ sexual victimization. The rates of cases whose history of sexual victimization was socially disclosed were higher in communities and among survivors with low rape myths acceptance and disclosure showed associations with perceived stigmatization. Rape myths acceptance among individuals without a history of sexual victimization was associated with survivors’ recently experienced threats to social integrity which predicted their stigma perceptions and mental illness. Conclusion: Rape myths acceptance in the community is associated with stigma and trauma-related mental illness of sexual violence survivors. This adds up to the psychic burden of trauma.

The Relationship between Purity Culture and Rape Myth Acceptance

The current study investigated the relationship between purity culture, rape myth acceptance, and intrinsic religiosity in the Christian population. Specifically, this study explored if purity culture endorsement would be associated with increased rape myth acceptance and increased likelihood of incorrectly labeling rape. It was also examined whether intrinsic religiosity would ameliorate the relationship between purity culture and rape myth acceptance. Ninety-nine Christian men and women participated in this study. Results demonstrated that endorsement of purity culture was related to increased endorsement of rape myths and increased likelihood of labeling marital rape and acquaintance rape as consensual sex. Intrinsic religiosity was also found to be a significant moderator of the relationship between purity culture and rape myth acceptance. Overall, these findings have important implications for how purity culture is taught and understood, and how these teachings relate to the Christian population’s involvement in the cultural dialogue surrounding sexual assault.

Teaching to Impact Sexual Violence? The Evaluation of a Curricular Intervention for First-Year College Students.

To evaluate whether a semester-long course for first-year undergraduates influenced knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions about gender, sexuality, and sexual violence. Quasi-experimental survey design. A private university in the Southeastern US. Undergraduates enrolled in an intervention (n = 49) or comparison (n = 60) course in Fall 2018. Sociosexual Orientation Inventory, Sexual Conservatism, Heteronormative Attitudes and Beliefs, Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, Bystander Efficacy Scale, Consent Myths, Sexual Misconduct Apathy, Campus Resource Awareness Index. A 2-way mixed-factorial ANOVA. Relative to the comparison group, students in the intervention course had significantly greater rates of change in reducing heteronormative views, decreasing sexual misconduct apathy, and increasing awareness of campus resources for sexual violence. A semester-long course targeting first-year undergraduates can potentially influence knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions regarding sexual violence and create a more positive campus climate.

Examining the Relationship Between Victimization, Psychopathy, and the Acceptance of Rape Myths.

Rape myths are attitudes that implicitly and explicitly blame victims for their own sexual victimization. Greater adherence to rape myths is linked to several negative outcomes, including the neutralization of gender-based violence and the perpetration of sexual violence. Few studies have considered how previous life experiences and individual-level traits influence the development and greater adherence to rape myths. The current study examines how traits associated with the three-factor model of psychopathy (i.e., egocentric, callous, and antisocial dimensions) and adherence to traditional gender roles mediate the relationship between prior childhood/adolescent victimization and the acceptance of rape myths in a sample of college men and women (N = 789). Path modeling indicates that experiences of psychological victimization (before age 16) increased egocentric psychopathic traits, which then increased the acceptance of rape myths in men. In women, however, sexual victimization (before age 16) increased the acceptance of traditional gender roles, which then influenced the acceptance of rape myths. Additionally, the egocentric facet of psychopathy exerted indirect effects on the acceptance of rape myths through traditional views on gender roles in both men and women. These findings highlight the need to continue to examine egocentric personality traits in relation to the development of rape myths in adolescent and young adult populations. Directions for collegiate programming are discussed.

Rape myth acceptance in Lebanon: The role of sexual assault experience/familiarity, sexism, honor beliefs, and the Dark Triad

The acceptance of rape myths persists at varying levels across societies, which creates a hostile environment in which rape is justified and victims are blamed for being assaulted. This study investigated experience and familiarity with sexual assault, the Dark Triad traits, and gender-based beliefs benevolent and hostile sexism, and masculine honor beliefs as predictors of rape myth acceptance in a Lebanese sample consisting of 311 participants (177 women). Men scored significantly higher than women in rape myth acceptance, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, hostile sexism, and masculine honor beliefs. Participants who were victims of sexual assault or knew someone who had been assaulted in the past scored significantly lower on rape myth acceptance than those who did not. In addition, familiarity with sexual assault moderated the relationship between psychopathy and both benevolent sexism and masculine honor beliefs. Results from Structural Equation Modeling demonstrated that both hostile sexism and masculine honor beliefs mediated the relationship between the Dark Triad traits and rape myth acceptance. These findings emphasize the role of specific personality traits, subjective experience and beliefs in shaping rape-enabling attitudes; such a model can be used as the foundation of rape prevention programs in the future.

Testing a Model of How a Sexual Assault Resistance Education Program for Women Reduces Sexual Assaults

The Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) program has been shown to reduce sexual assaults experienced by university students who identify as women. Prevention researchers emphasize testing theory-based mechanisms once positive outcomes related to effectiveness are established. We assessed the process by which EAAA’s positive outcomes are achieved in a sample of 857 first year university students. EAAA’s goals are to increase risk detection in social interactions, decrease obstacles to risk detection or resistance with known men, and increase women’s use of effective self-defense. We used chained multiple mediator modeling to assess the combined effects of the primary mediators (risk detection, direct resistance, and self-defense self-efficacy) while simultaneously assessing the interrelationships among the secondary mediators (perception of personal risk, belief in the myth of female precipitation, and general rape myth acceptance). The hypothesized multiple mediation model with three primary mediators met the criterion for full mediation of the intervention effects. Together, the mediators accounted for 95% and 76% of the reductions in completed and attempted rape, respectively, demonstrating full mediation. The hypothesized secondary mediators were important in achieving improvements in personal and situational risk detection. The findings strongly support the benefit of cognitive ecological theory and the Assess, Acknowledge, Act conceptualization underlying EAAA. This evidence can be used by administrators and staff responsible for prevention policy and practice on campuses to defend the implementation of theoretically grounded, evidence-based prevention programs. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684320962561

Σεξουαλική επιθετικότητα νέων ανδρών και παράγοντες που την ενισχύουν

Objectives: The current study aimed at assessing the prevalence and risk factors for the perpetration of sexually aggressive behaviours, in men aged 18-30 years in the city of Heraklion, Crete. Methods: Stratified sampling was used to select the study sample. A total of 241 individuals accepted to participate in the study out of 335 initially found to meet the inclusion criteria (gender, age). For the needs of the current study a semi-structured questionnaire was used, including 4 sections and 43 items. The questionnaire examined the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics, their past sexual activity and experiences, their attitudes towards the rape myths, and the prevalence of perpetrating sexually aggressive behaviours. Results: Participants were men (n=241) with a mean age of 23.9 years (SD 3.4) and had their first sexual intercourse at the age of 17.2 years (SD 2.0). Out of a total of 241 participants, 8 (3.3%) reported a history of sexual victimization without intercourse before the age of 14 years and 2 (.8%) reported sexual victimization with intercourse at the same age. Based on the results of the multiple regression analysis, higher acceptance of rape myths was found to be associated with increased likelihood of perpetrating sexually aggressive behaviours (p<.001; CI=.721;1.471) after controlling for the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics and their past sexual activity and experiences. Conclusion: Future attempts to prevent or address the problem of sexual aggression could take into account the risk factors identified in the current study.

Σεξουαλική επιθετικότητα νέων ανδρών και παράγοντες που την ενισχύουν

Objectives: The current study aimed at assessing the prevalence and risk factors for the perpetration of sexually aggressive behaviours, in men aged 18-30 years in the city of Heraklion, Crete. Methods: Stratified sampling was used to select the study sample. A total of 241 individuals accepted to participate in the study out of 335 initially found to meet the inclusion criteria (gender, age). For the needs of the current study a semi-structured questionnaire was used, including 4 sections and 43 items. The questionnaire examined the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics, their past sexual activity and experiences, their attitudes towards the rape myths, and the prevalence of perpetrating sexually aggressive behaviours. Results: Participants were men (n=241) with a mean age of 23.9 years (SD 3.4) and had their first sexual intercourse at the age of 17.2 years (SD 2.0). Out of a total of 241 participants, 8 (3.3%) reported a history of sexual victimization without intercourse before the age of 14 years and 2 (.8%) reported sexual victimization with intercourse at the same age. Based on the results of the multiple regression analysis, higher acceptance of rape myths was found to be associated with increased likelihood of perpetrating sexually aggressive behaviours (p<.001; CI=.721;1.471) after controlling for the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics and their past sexual activity and experiences. Conclusion: Future attempts to prevent or address the problem of sexual aggression could take into account the risk factors identified in the current study.

Building Master Trainers to Facilitate Sexual Violence Prevention: A Pilot Study in Ghana.

Background:Sexual violence is a widespread human rights violation that affects women and girls throughout the world, with particularly high rates among college-age youth. In the United States, many universities have developed primary prevention education programs to comply with federal mandates; however, these programs are limited in sub-Saharan Africa.Objectives:The purpose of this pilot study is to describe and evaluate the training of peer facilitators for a sexual violence prevention program at two universities in Ghana; the University of Cape Coast and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.Methods:A three-day “master trainer” training was held focusing on sexual violence, sexual health, bias, healthy relationships, and facilitation skills. Participants completed pre- and post-test evaluations on knowledge, attitudes, and skills related to the topics and participants from the University of Cape Coast also participated in a focus group about bias and self-care.Findings:Participants (n = 23) at both universities demonstrated significant changes in the domains of: self-care knowledge, sexual violence knowledge, rape myth acceptance, and facilitation skills.Conclusions:This study provides early evidence about training methods for primary prevention programs aimed at students on university campuses in sub-Saharan Africa. Further research is needed on peer-facilitation, training, and primary prevention programs related to sexual violence for university students in sub-Saharan Africa.

Masculine norms and college men’s rape myth acceptance: The mediating role of nurturance.

Masculine norms and college men’s rape myth acceptance: The mediating role of nurturance.

Facilitating Sexual Assault Reporting on the College Campus: The Role of Procedural Justice in Bystander Decisions to Provide Police Referrals.

Using a randomly assigned 2 (victim race) × 2 (alcohol consumption) between-subjects factorial design, this study used surveys from a sample of 571 undergraduate students at a mid-sized, public university in the United States to determine the effect of procedural justice on police referral after reading a sexual assault disclosure vignette. Multivariate binary logistic regression models demonstrated that positive perceptions of procedural justice increased police referral following sexual assault disclosure. Victim alcohol consumption and rape myth acceptance decreased police referral. Victim race, victim alcohol consumption, and participant sex did not moderate the effect of procedural justice on police referral. Implications are discussed.

Gender-equitable Attitudes, Rape Myth Acceptance, and Perceived Peer Acceptance of Violence among High School Students: An Examination of Gender and Athletic Involvement.

Adolescent relationship abuse (ARA) impacts approximately one-third of teens and is associated with myriad negative health outcomes. Studies on college men indicate that athletes hold less gender-equitable attitudes (GEA), greater rape myth acceptance (RMA), and higher perceived peer support for violence (PSV), and that these attitudes are associated with perpetration risk. However, research has yet to compare the prevalence of these attitudes across gender and athletic status among high school students. The present study addressed this gap by examining the direct and interactive effects of gender and athletic status on GEA, RMA, and PSV in a large sample of high school students living in the United States. Results showed that boys involved in athletics reported lower GEA, higher RMA, and higher PSV than girls involved in athletics and non-athletes. Findings demonstrate the importance of addressing attitudes associated with violent behavior among high school boys involved in athletics, in order to reduce risk of ARA.

A Correlational Model of Rape Myth Acceptance and Psychosocial Factors Among Medical School Students

A substantial body of medical literature suggests that different types of persons blame rape victim for the fate. Although rape myth acceptance can be a product of personal psychosocial factors, it is also a response to messages from social, family, media, and groups that propagate the legitimacy of such myths. We aimed to evaluate whether personal variables such as depression, drug use, being non-heteronormative, and inconsistent condom use could act as supportive factors for rape myth acceptance. This cross-sectional study used questions and validated instruments assessing sociodemographic characteristics, depression, drug use, and rape myth acceptance to perform a correlational model. A total of 269 medical students aged 18 and above, from the first through the sixth year at a medical school, were randomly selected and recruited for the study. Being male and using drugs significantly supported myth rape acceptance; in contrast, higher depression levels, beingnon-heteronormative, and a history of being sexually abused in childhood did not support these rape myths. What holds promise for the future, however, is that although we still live in a patriarchal society, university students can be encouraged to question their personal and sexual roles, and recreate our culture.

Priming Self-Affirmation Reduces the Negative Impact of High Rape Myth Acceptance: Assessing Women's Perceptions and Judgments of Sexual Assault.

Researchers have theorized and empirically shown that compared with low rape myth acceptance (RMA) individuals, those high in RMA are more likely to discount rape prevention messages. These researchers have urged the development of approaches to counteract the defensiveness and related processes that are presumed to cause such discounting. In the present research we empirically tested the effectiveness of a self-affirmation approach designed to reduce defensiveness to and increase engagement with important but potentially self-threatening information about sexual assault. Female participants classified as low or high in RMA were randomly assigned to either a self-affirmation or no-affirmation control condition and then read about a controversial case of campus sexual assault. We found support for the effectiveness of such a self-affirmation intervention for high-RMA women. Specifically, on a questionnaire administered after the exposure, affirmed high-RMA women relative to the control group reported greater endorsement of the realistic use of the "yes means yes" standard of consent, higher self-standards in defining consensual sexual behavior, increases in perceived knowledge of available resources for sexual assault victims, lower support of rape myths, and greater support for punishing someone convicted of sexual assault. As expected, for women low in RMA there were no significant differences in reporting on these measures between the affirmation condition and the no-affirmation condition. From an agentic perspective these results are encouraging. This approach may merit further development as part of an intervention for reducing biased processing and increasing the effectiveness of consent campaigns and other sexual violence prevention programs.

"Just Bring Us the Real Ones": The Role of Forensic Crime Laboratories in Guarding the Gateway to Justice for Sexual Assault Victims.

Throughout the United States, hundreds of thousands of sexual assault kits (SAKs; also termed "rape kits") have never been submitted by law enforcement personnel to a crime laboratory for forensic DNA testing. Prior research indicates that negative stereotypes about victims influence police decisions to submit kits for testing, but forensic crime laboratory personnel may also be involved in SAK submission decisions. The purpose of the current study was to explore the communication and collaboration between police and crime lab personnel regarding SAK submissions within a community with large numbers of unsubmitted rape kits. Drawing from 3 years of ethnographic observations and longitudinal qualitative interviews, we found that the police department's crime lab did not have sufficient resources to test all rape kits in police custody, which is a problem forensic laboratories are facing throughout the United States. However, we also found that access to this limited resource was controlled by crime lab personnel and their rape myth beliefs about which victims and which cases were considered worthy of the time, effort, and attention of the criminal justice system. Lab personnel emphasized that police should only submit "real" cases for forensic DNA testing, which they typically defined as physically violent stranger-perpetrated sexual assaults; "shady" cases did not merit testing, which they defined as known-offender assaults, reports made by adolescent victims, and cases in which the victim may have been engaged in sex work. We noted marked similarities in police and lab personnel's rape myth acceptance, and stakeholders readily agreed that they did have a common understanding about which victims were not credible and therefore which SAKs did not merit testing. We discuss these findings in light of recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences for the independence and autonomy of the forensic sciences from law enforcement.

Attachment Anxiety, Rape Myth Acceptance, and Sexual Compliance.

People may consent to sexual activity with a partner when they do not desire it (i.e., sexual compliance), and such behavior is particularly prevalent in women. Despite the negative consequences of unwanted sex, (e.g., guilt and poor health), few studies have considered those factors influencing sexual compliance. Attachment anxiety is characterized by overestimation of relationship threats and sensitivity to romantic rejection and rape myths are beliefs about rape that deny, trivialize, or justify sexual aggression and assault. In the present study both attachment anxiety and rape myth acceptance were hypothesized to influence perceptions of unwanted sex and personal experience of sexual compliance. Heterosexual women (N = 158) completed a series of online standardized self-report measures. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to determine whether attachment anxiety and rape myth acceptance predicted women’s perceptions of unwanted sex (perpetrator blame, victim blame, no blame, compliance, confrontation, and ignore) and personal experience of sexual compliance, while controlling for participant age and length of their current romantic relationship. Women high on attachment anxiety were less likely to endorse confrontation of a partner and were more likely to report personal experience of unwanted sex. Those accepting rape myths were more likely to endorse compliance and less likely to blame perpetrators or endorse confrontation of the partner. Future research should consider the consequences of unwanted sex and experiences of sexual compliance in nonheterosexual relationships and those who do not identify as women.

Are College Students' Attitudes Related to Their Application of Sanctions for Campus Sexual Assault Cases?

With growing attention to adjudication of campus sexual assault cases, more is known regarding students' views of sexual assault, but little the literature focuses on how students perceive "justice" in terms of assigning sanctions or guilt/responsibility for such cases. The present study focused on understanding whether college students' preformed attitudes and beliefs were associated with the severity of sanctions they applied across a range of sexual assault cases as well as their assignments of guilt and responsibility to the parties involved. To determine students' attitudes and beliefs mediating effects on sanction choices, five scales (i.e., rape myth acceptance, downplaying the severity of rape, sexism, just world beliefs, and right-wing authoritarianism) were adapted and used for this project. College students (n = 846) responded to one of four versions of a randomly distributed survey each containing eight vignettes varied to represent levels of 14 factors employed because of their relevance to campus sexual assault cases. Across all versions, sexism was associated with increased responsibility given to the victim. In addition, stronger endorsement of both downplaying significance of rape and rape myth acceptance scales were associated with giving a milder sanction to the perpetrator and increased responsibility and guilt assigned to the victim. Just world beliefs and right-wing authoritarianism associations were inconsistent across the four versions, suggesting these beliefs were situation-specific. Preformed attitudes that are more directly related to the context of sexual assault influenced the designation of sanctions applied to perpetrators and perceptions of guilt and responsibility. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for research and prevention programming.

Who sees opportunity to help? A prospective study on adolescents’ detection of intervention opportunities in situations of sexual and dating violence

Adolescent bystanders (i.e., witnesses to violence) can prevent sexual and dating violence among their peers and create a safer social environment if they detect the opportunity. The current study prospectively examined the association of demographic (i.e., age, gender, sexual orientation), psychosocial (i.e., knowledge, rape myth acceptance, victim empathy), and behavioral (i.e., binge drinking) factors with bystander opportunity detection in situations regarding sexual and dating violence among adolescents ( N = 1,322, 50.3% girls/women, 88.9% White/non-Hispanic, 85.9% heterosexual, 18.6% free/reduced lunch, aged 13–19). Sexual minority girls, adolescents with greater victim empathy, and binge drinkers were more likely to detect bystander opportunity than heterosexual girls, boys, adolescents with less victim empathy, and nonbinge drinkers. These findings suggest that current theoretical frameworks used to understand bystander opportunity and action may be enhanced by the consideration of demographic and personal characteristics.