Victims Of Acquaintance Rape Research Articles

Female victims of acquaintance rape in college: Incidence and effects of encounters with perpetrators

Objectives: Acquaintance rape is the most common type of rape perpetrated against college women, but little information exists on later encounters with the perpetrator, lifestyle changes, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants: The sample consisted of 463 college-attending females, 16% of which indicated they were raped since attending college. Methods: The current study examines the incidence and effects of acquaintance rape perpetrated against female college students at a large, public university in the southeastern United States. Results: Eighty-four percent of the women who indicated they had experienced a rape since attending college knew their perpetrator, and 65.5% encountered their perpetrator after the attack. Participants who encountered their perpetrator after the attack reported more lifestyle changes and higher PTSD symptom severity on the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). Conclusions: The current research suggests that the effects of acquaintance rape in college is a complicated area needing further research. There is evidence to support negative effects on victims based on interactions with perpetrators.

Persons Who Fear Freedom and Equality Are the Ones Who Most Blame Women Who are Victims of Acquaintance Rape.

This study analyzes whether the degree of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation influence the blame placed on a woman who is the victim of an acquaintance rape. The participants read a rape scenario and responded to three questionnaires about the blame of the victim, right-wing authoritarianism, and social dominance. The results show that greater blame was attributed to the victim when the participants scored high in right-wing authoritarianism or social dominance. They also reveal an interaction between both variables: participants who scored high in both right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance attributed the greatest blame to the victim.

“Should Have Known Better than to Fraternize with a Black Man”: Structural Racism Intersects Rape Culture to Intensify Attributions of Acquaintance Rape Victim Culpability

Rape culture is characterized by prevalent rape of women by male acquaintances, which is exacerbated in the aftermath by negative social responses including attributions of victim culpability. In prior research, collaborators and I found that, consistent with norm theory, perceiving sociolegal context as unclear and ineffective in expressing that rape of women is a crime (vs. perceiving that law clearly and effectively expresses that rape is a crime) paradoxically intensified negative reactions and culpability attributions toward a woman raped by a male acquaintance. In the current research, I tested the hypothesis that, amidst rape culture, structural racism—in particular, disparate hypersexuality stereotyping of Black men—paradoxically would intensify attributions of victim culpability toward a woman raped by a Black male acquaintance. In Study 1, 268 students at a university in the Southern United States stereotyped Black men and Black women as more hypersexual than same-gender counterparts of other races/ethnicities. In Study 2, 238 students from the same university attributed more culpability to an acquaintance rape victim whose perpetrator was Black (vs. perpetrators of other races/ethnicities), and this effect resulted in part from rape-propensity stereotyping that was disparately activated by the Black perpetrator. Taken together, the present research highlights that intersectional dynamics do not work exclusively within members of particular groups, where marginalized identities coincide, but also in the contextual space that invisibly but undeniably affects people’s lives. Suggestions for combatting rape culture, structural racism, and their intersections are discussed.

Sexual Assault Disclosure: The Effect of Victim Race and Perpetrator Type on Empathy, Culpability, and Service Referral for Survivors in a Hypothetical Scenario.

The aftermath of sexual assault warrants further attention surrounding the responses provided by those to whom survivors disclose, especially when perpetrator type or victim race may affect whether the bystander response is supportive or attributes culpability to the victim. Disclosure responses have significant consequences for survivors' posttrauma mental health and formal help-seeking behavior. The current study used a sample of 348 self-report, paper-and-pencil surveys administered during the fall 2015 semester to a purposive sample of undergraduate students with a mean age of 20.94 years old at a midsized, Southern public university. Survey design included a randomly assigned 2 × 2 hypothetical sexual assault disclosure vignette. The objective of the study was to assess the effect of perpetrator type (stranger vs. acquaintance) and victim race (White vs. Black) on empathic concern, culpability attributions, and resource referral. Between-subjects factorial ANOVA and multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models were estimated to identify the role of vignette manipulations, participant-sexual victimization history, and rape myth acceptance on empathy, culpability, and resource referral for the sexual assault survivor portrayed in the vignette. Multivariate analyses included main effects and moderation models. Findings revealed increased culpability and decreased resource referral for victims of acquaintance rape as compared with stranger rape, independent of victim race. Although no direct victim race effects emerged in the multivariate analyses, race moderated the effect of culpability on resource referral indicating culpability attributions decreased resource referral, but only when the victim was Black . Implications from the results presented here include a continued focus on bystander intervention strategies, empathy-building techniques, and educational programming targeting potential sexual assault disclosees and race stereotypes that disadvantage victims of color.

Participant Sexual Victimization by an Acquaintance and Gender Predicting Empathy With an Acquaintance or Stranger Rape Victim

This study examined empathy with a hypothetical rape victim based on relationship context of rape (acquaintance; stranger), participant sexual victimization experience by an acquaintance, and gender. Undergraduates (n = 321, 206 female) from a Northeast United States midsize public university completed the Rape Victim Empathy-During Subscale (relationship context of rape experimentally varied), and the Sexual Experiences Survey. Hypotheses were partially supported. Results revealed that those with victimization experience (victimized by acquaintances) reported greater empathy with an acquaintance rape victim than a stranger rape victim, but those without victimization experience did not differ in their empathy levels based on relationship context condition. Furthermore, those with victimization experience reported greater empathy than those without victimization experience in the acquaintance context condition only. Gender differences did not emerge for those without victimization experience, but female v...

Attitudes towards victims and perpetrators of hypothetical rape scenarios involving intoxication: an application to the UK

PurposeThe aim of this study is to investigate the influence of binge drinking behaviour and ambivalent sexism on attitudes towards hypothetical victims and perpetrators of acquaintance rape.Design/methodology/approachThe research sample comprised 189 students. All were provided with a fictional rape scenario, depicting varying levels of perpetrator intoxication or varying extents to which an intoxicated victim was able to recall providing consent. Participants were then asked to rate their opinions of victim and perpetrator responsibility. They also completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI), the Attitudes towards Rape Victim Scale (ARVS), and a measure to assess respondent binge drinking behaviour.FindingsRespondents attributed more responsibility to intoxicated victims of acquaintance rape than victims who were not intoxicated. Respondents classified as non‐sexist had more victim empathy than respondents classified as ambivalent sexists. Respondents' binge drinking behaviour did not impact on attributions of victim responsibility.Research limitations/implicationsFictional rape scenarios are utilised in the current research. The research literature highlights the difficulties posed by the presence of uncontrolled variables (such as the description of the victim) within hypothetical scenarios. The findings reported here should therefore be generalised with caution. Recommendations for future research are suggested.Practical implicationsThe study has practical implications in developing an understanding of legal decision making and factors influencing the potential secondary victimisation of victims.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the current literature in attempting to explore the influence of respondents' binge drinking behaviour on attitudes towards intoxicated victims.

The Relationship between Rape Myths and Sexual Scripts: The Social Construction of Rape

Rape myths can influence sexual scripts that determine sexual attitudes and behavior. Sexual scripts are culturally determined patterns of behavior that inform desire and influence sexual behavior. Sexual scripts include hook up, seduction, rape, and acquaintance rape scripts (e.g., the too-much-to drink script, the man-is-ready-for-sex script, and the friends-gone-too-far script). However, research shows that many individuals still hold an erroneous real rape script, even when asked to describe acquaintance rape. This may prevent acquaintance rape victims from acknowledging their rape and it may allow acquaintance rapists to engage in sexual aggression while denying it is rape. Rape scripts research supports several of the rape myths reviewed by Edwards and her colleagues (Edwards, Turchik, Dardis, Reynolds, & Gidycz, 2011), but suggests two additional rape myths (i.e., the myth that men cannot stop once they have started to become sexually aroused and the myth that rapists are obviously different from other men). The study of the relationship between rape myths and sexual scripts may help to understand the social construction of rape and consensual sex. Rape myths and sexual scripts may work in conjunction to support rape.

Diminishing the Legal Impact of Negative Social Attitudes toward Acquaintance Rape Victims

Rape law has been a significant site for the valorization of female chastity and constraint, on the one hand, and male prowess and freedom, on the other. It continues to reflect the sexism of a culture resistant to ceding male control over sexuality. Legal reform of rape law over the past forty years has greatly helped those who experience stranger rape that includes violence extrinsic to the rape itself. However, this generation of reform did not sufficiently help those whose experiences are more common: those raped by acquaintances without extrinsic violence. To tackle this larger problem, the law must undergo another generation of renewal, one that works affirmatively to diminish the legal impact of negative social attitudes toward acquaintance rape victims. This article proposes a range of legal reforms to that end.

Diminishing the Legal Impact of Negative Social Attitudes Toward Acquaintance Rape Victims

Rape law often condemns females who are not chaste and excuses males who act with sexual entitlement. Rape law has been a significant site for the valorization of female chastity and constraint, on the one hand, and male prowess and freedom, on the other. It continues to reflect the sexism of a culture resistant to ceding male control over sexuality. Legal reform of rape law over the past forty years has greatly helped those who experience stranger rape that includes violence extrinsic to the rape itself. However, this generation of reform did not sufficiently help those whose experiences are more common: those raped by acquaintances without extrinsic violence. To tackle this larger problem, the law must undergo another generation of renewal, one that works affirmatively to diminish the legal impact of negative social attitudes toward acquaintance rape victims. Tis article proposes a range of legal reforms to that end.

Bad Woman, Bad Victim? Disentangling the Effects of Victim Stereotypicality, Gender Stereotypicality and Benevolent Sexism on Acquaintance Rape Victim Blame

Based on the assertion that previous research may have inadvertently confounded two stereotypes, we considered the impact of benevolent sexism on rape victim blame in the context of independent manipulations of gender and the perceived genuineness (victim stereotypicality) of an acquaintance rape victim. We predicted that for blame, benevolent sexism may be independently positively associated with gender and victim counter-stereotypicality. Following pilot work, 120 Australian undergraduates read an acquaintance rape scenario. Results indicated that benevolent sexism was only positively associated with blame of the gender counter-stereotypical victim when that victim was also counter-stereotypical in terms of victim stereotypes. This result indicates a more moderate role than previously indicated for benevolent sexism in accounting for rape victim blame.

Hostile Sexism and Rape Proclivity Amongst Men

In the current study, we examined the influence of victim type and hostile sexism on men’s judgments about an acquaintance rape victim and their self-reported acquaintance rape proclivity. It was predicted that hostile sexism would predict self-reported rape proclivity, but that this relationship would be moderated by victim type. Specifically, it was predicted that participants would report greater proclivity in relation to a victim who appeared not to adhere to traditional gender stereotypes than to a victim who appeared to adhere to such stereotypes. Further, in line with D. Abrams, G. T. Viki, B. Masser, and G. Bohner (2003), it was predicted that the relationship between hostile sexism and rape proclivity would be mediated by perceptions of “token resistance” by the victim. Results partially supported the hypotheses. Hostile sexism was positively related to rape proclivity, but victim type was not found to moderate the relationship. In addition, perceptions of “token resistance” were found to mediate the hostile sexism and rape proclivity relationship. The results suggest that, at least in terms of rape proclivity, hostile sexists may not differentiate in their targets for sexual aggression.

The Effects of Victim’s Substance Use and Relationship Closeness on Mock Jurors’ Judgments in an Acquaintance Rape Case

Previous research has demonstrated that jurors perceive a female victim who is drunk at the time when she is sexually assaulted as less credible and more deserving of such punishment than a sober victim. In this experiment, we investigated the effect of an alleged acquaintance rape victim’s type of substance use and closeness of relationship with the defendant on the judgments of 152 student mock jurors. Participants read a case summary and answered a series of questions about their impressions of the actors and actions involved in the case. Participants perceived a victim who was sober at the time of the incident as more credible than a victim who was intoxicated due to illegal substance use (alcohol or LSD), and convictions were also most likely when the victim was sober. Women perceived the victim as more credible than men did. Higher victim credibility judgments were associated with less rape myth acceptance (RMA) on the part of participants.

Comparison of sexual assaults by strangers versus known assailants in a community-based population

The medical literature has generally supported the view that sexual assaults by strangers are more serious and more violent than assaults by people known to the victims. This retrospective study was conducted to compare characteristics of sexual assaults by strangers and those by people known to the victims in a community-based population of women. Study patients were consecutive female patients, age 13 years or older, presenting to a sexual assault clinic during a 40-month study period. The clinic is associated with a university-affiliated emergency medicine residency program and is staffed by forensic nurses trained to perform medical-legal examinations using colposcopy with nuclear staining. Case files of 849 patients were reviewed; the age range was 13 to 82 years (mean, 22.5 years). Sexual assault by a person known to the victim accounted for 646 (76%) cases. The majority of these assailants (68%) were described as acquaintances; 139 (21%) were current or previous boyfriends or spouses; 33 (5%) involved other family members. Sexual assault by a stranger was more likely to occur in the home of the victim (43% v 28%, P < .001), involve weapons or physical coercion (58% v 31%, P < .001), and was associated with more non-genital injuries (61% v 40%, P < .001). However, the overall frequency of anogenital trauma (77% v 71%, P = .10), the mean number of anogenital injuries (2.0 v 2.3, P = .05), and the types of genital trauma were similar in both groups of women. These results demonstrated that 71% of the victims of acquaintance rape sustain anogenital trauma and that these injuries may be as extensive as those caused by unknown assailants.

Reflections on healing: framing strategies utilized by acquaintance rape survivors

This study examines the stories acquaintance rape victims tell through semi-structured interviews. Acquaintance rape, viewed here as a particularly paradoxical crime, creates a need for women to resolve the inconsistency of their experience. By conducting interviews with victims and analyzing their verbal communication, this project explores how victims frame their rape experience. Framing strategies used by victims of sexual harassment served as a guide for the initial identification of framing strategies for victims of acquaintance rape. Women in this study utilized strategies of paradox management to assess blame, define, and reframe their experiences. Recognition of these management strategies can assist social support networks and law enforcement professionals in identifying the communicative strategies of female victims of varying types of violence.

But She Was Unfaithful: Benevolent Sexism and Reactions to Rape Victims Who Violate Traditional Gender Role Expectations

The role of benevolent sexism (BS) in accounting for victim blame in an acquaintance rape case was investigated. Participants were presented with vignettes that described an acquaintance rape. Control condition participants were given no descriptive information about the victim, whereas in the “cheating” condition the victim was described as a “married woman.” As predicted, participants who scored high in BS attributed more blame to the acquaintance rape victim who was assaulted during an act of infidelity than to a victim in similar circumstances whose marital status was unknown. These findings complement those of other research (Abrams, Viki, Masser, & Bohner, in press), which indicate that individuals high in BS are more likely to react negatively to rape victims who can be viewed as violating social norms concerning appropriate conduct for women.

The ultimate loss: Rape and suicide in Qing China, 1744 – 1903

By examining 1841 rape cases in late Qing China, this paper studies the significance of suicide among rape victims. More than 40 percent of all rape victims committed suicide; the figure was much higher among those victims of rape, attempted rape, and acquaintance rape. On the one hand, Qing rape laws reflected Confucian traditions which controlled women's sexuality and demanded their chastity. If a woman was sexually assaulted and survived the ordeal, the stringent rape laws made it very difficult for her to proclaim her innocence. Let alone for those victims of acquaintance rape to accuse their perpetrators. Only serious injury and death of the victim could convince the court to convict the perpetrator. On the other hand, the Qing government awarded those victims who resisted rape, and who were either killed by their perpetrators or took their lives afterwards. When laws were not favorable to their plight, victims of sexual offenses saw no other alternative but to use suicide to implicate and avenge their perpetrators.

Bad Dates or Emotional Trauma?

Backlash critics of campus rape research have claimed that researchers exaggerate their figures by labeling as rape victims those women who experience bad dates. Although researchers have compared stranger with acquaintance rape victims, they have not compared women raped while too drunk to resist and those raped by force. This study of 65 rape victims (in a sample of 388 college seniors) found no evidence for critics' claims. Women raped by intoxication are not less emotionally affected and do not blame themselves more. Most women did not classify their experiences as rape, although all were victims under criminal law. This lack of recognition is what causes hidden victims, who do not report or seek help.

The Prevalence and Characteristics of Male Perpetrators of Acquaintance Rape

Previous research has found that whereas 15% to 25% of college women report being the victims of acquaintance rape, only 4% to 15% of men report committing acquaintance rape. This study follows Kazdin's suggestion to use all of the potentially important components to attempt to find a result when previous researchers have failed to achieve significant findings. A new methodology is used to attempt to find a percentage of males who admit to committing acquaintance rape that is commensurate with the percentage of women reporting that they were victims. The results indicate that although an alcoholexpectancy manipulation was not related to admission of involvement in acquaintance rape, the new methodological conditions (i.e., consumption of a nonalcoholic beer, a sexually explicit story, a private room, and a male experimenter) successfully resulted in a higher percentage of men reporting that they perpetrated sexual aggression and acquaintance rape. Specifically, 24% of the men admitted committing acquaintance rape based on a broad definition, and 10% admitted committing acquaintance rape based on a stringent definition of acquaintance rape. Suggestions are provided for further research.

Dating, Drinking, and Rape: Effects of Victim's and Assailant's Alcohol Consumption on Judgments of Their Behavior and Traits

Effects of an acquaintance rape victim's and her assailant's alcohol consumption on judgments of their behavior and traits were examined in a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial experiment. Sixty-eight women and 64 men, 21 or older, read one of four stories in which only the victim, only the assailant, both victim and assailant, or neither victim nor assailant consumed alcohol. One individual difference trait, rape attitudes, was also measured. The interaction of victim and assailant drinking diminished the view that a rape had occurred and that the victim responded negatively, whereas it enhanced judgments of the assailant's likability and sexuality. The portrayal of only the victim drinking resulted in a more negative view of the assailant's behavior and traits. Evaluations of the victim depended on the assailant's drinking behavior rather than on her own. Implications for treatment of rape victims and establishing assailant accountability are discussed.

Stranger and Acquaintance Rape: Are There Differences In the Victim's Experience?

Most published research on the victim–offender relationship has been based on small samples that consisted mainly of women who were raped by nonintimate and nonromantic acquaintances, who viewed their experience as rape, and/or who were seeking treatment. In the present study, 489 rape victims were located among a national sample of 3, 187 female college students by a self-report survey that avoided reliance on helpseekers. Two sets of comparisons were performed. First, the experiences reported by victims of stranger rape ( n = 52) were compared with those of victims of acquaintance rape ( n = 416). Then, the experiences of women assaulted by different types of acquaintances were compared including nonromantic acquaintances ( n = 122), casual dates ( n = 103), steady dates ( n = 147), and spouses or other family members ( n = 44). Rapes by acquaintances, compared with strangers, were more likely to involve a single offender and multiple episodes, were less likely to be seen as rape or to be revealed to anyone, and were similar in terms of the victim's resistance. In general, acquaintance rapes were rated as less violent than stranger rapes. The exception was rapes by husbands or other family members which were rated equally violent to stranger rapes but were much less likely to occur in a context of drinking or other drug use. In spite of these different crime characteristics, virtually no differences were found among any of the groups in their levels of psychological symptoms. A significant feature of these data is that they have tapped the experiences of unreported and unacknowledged rape victims, a group that is potentially much larger than the group of identified victims.