Blame attributions in sexual crimes: Effects of belief in a just world and victim behavior

Experimental Effects of Substance Use Legality (Sober, Alcohol, Marijuana, Cocaine) and Sexual Crime (Indecent Exposure, Rape) on Attributions of Perpetrator Responsibility, Blame, and Punishment

Background: The perceived culpability of a sexual crime perpetrator may be attributed as a function of both the legality of the substance used when committing the crime and the severity of the sex crime. Objectives: The experiment applied attribution theory to examine the simultaneous impact of substance use legality and sexual crime severity on participants' perceptions of responsibility, blame, and punishment toward sexual crime perpetrators. Methods: Participants (N = 461) in this 4 (substance legality) × 2 (sexual crime severity) experimental design were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions to read a police report depicting a sexual offense. The independent variable of substance legality was manipulated as the perpetrator's usage of no substance (sober), alcohol (legal), marijuana (partially legal), or cocaine (illegal) at the time of the crime. The second independent variable of sexual crime severity was manipulated as the offense of indecent exposure (mild offense) or rape (severe offense) committed by the perpetrator. After reading the manipulated vignette, participants rated outcome measures involving the perpetrator's responsibility, blame (guilt attributions, external attributions, and mental element attributions), and punishment (punishment attitudes and punishment severity). Results: Factorial MANCOVA and ANCOVAs were performed. Participants tended to attribute greater responsibility and blame, but not punishment, toward the sober perpetrator compared to the perpetrator intoxicated with alcohol, marijuana, or cocaine. Additionally, participants attributed significantly greater responsibility, blame, and punishment toward the perpetrator of rape compared to indecent exposure. Conclusions: The experiment supported that both substance legality and sexual crime severity uniquely served as contextual factors that played roles in people's judgments about crimes. Findings offer drug policy information regarding how substance intoxication is perceived as a mitigating excuse in criminal justice systems for committing sexual offenses.

Personality, Attitudinal, and Demographic Predictors of Non-consensual Dissemination of Intimate Images

Non-consensual intimate image dissemination (NCII), or else better known as "revenge pornography" is a form of technology-facilitated sexual violence that can have devastating effects on the victim. This is one of the first studies examining how demographic characteristics (gender, sexual orientation), personality traits (Dark Tetrad), and attitudes (aggrieved entitlement, sexual entitlement, sexual image abuse myth acceptance) predict NCII perpetration and victimization. In a sample of 810 undergraduate students (72.7% female and 23.3% male), 13.7% of the participants had at some point in their life, distributed nude, or sexual pictures of someone else without consent and 28.5% had experienced such victimization. NCII perpetration was predictive of NCII victimization and vice versa. Using binomial logistic regression, we found that women, members of the LGBQ+ community, those scoring higher in sadism, and participants with a history of NCII perpetration were more likely to report that someone had distributed their nude or sexual image without consent. Further, we found that those scoring higher in narcissism and sadism, along with those with a history of NCII victimization were more likely to report they had distributed the nude or sexual image of someone else without consent. Finally, the findings suggest that the relationship between victims and perpetrators is quite a bit more varied than the term "revenge pornography" implies.

She deserved it: Analysis of variables that influence the accountability of victims of sexual violence

This article aims to analyze the effect of the combination of the variables - victim characteristics (skin color and normativity), observer sex, Belief in a Just World, and ambivalent sexism - on sexual violence victim blaming. Three studies were conducted with university students (Study 1, N=288; Study 2, N=226; Study 3, N=307), who were asked to answer some items on victim blaming, Belief in a Just World, and Ambivalent Sexism. The ANOVA and ANCOVA analyses have shown that the combination of these variables resulted in higher black and counter-normative victim blaming. The results confirmed that victim skin color, victim normativity, and the observer sex influence victim blaming for sexual violence (study 1); that bjw predicts the attribution of the victim’s accountability for sexual violence (study 2), and that only benevolent sexism, together with bjw, was responsible for predicting victim blaming for sexual violence (study 3).

Uncivil Reactions to Sexual Assault Online: Linguistic Features of News Reports Predict Discourse Incivility

Reports of sexual assault have been found to elicit online discourse incivility. The present study employs a computerized coding tool to examine linguistic characteristics of news media that are likely to influence discourse incivility-specifically, negative emotion, disagreement, and discussion about power relations. Additionally, machine learning was harnessed to measure the levels of comment toxicity, insult, profanity, threat, and identity attack in Reddit and Twitter posts sharing news reports of sexual assault. Findings reveal that linguistic features of news articles interact with platform community norms to predict rape culture as expressed within online responses to reports of sexual assault.

"Why Did She Talk to Him Again?" The Effects of the Justice Motive, Relationship Type, and Degree of Postassault Contact on Perceptions of Sexual Assault

Victim blaming attitudes are prevalent within the criminal justice system where survivor behavior before, during, and following an assault is heavily scrutinized. Although dispositional characteristics (e.g., strength of one's justice motive) and characteristics of the assault (e.g., the type of relationship between a survivor and an offender) have been found to predict the degree of victim blaming, the effects of these variables on sexual assault myth endorsement are unclear. In addition, a variable that has not been examined in past literature is the degree of contact maintained between a survivor and offender after the assault. The purpose of the current study was to examine the extent to which the justice motive (strong vs. weak), the relationship between a fictional survivor and an offender (strangers vs. intimate partners), and contact between a survivor and offender postassault (contact vs. no contact) influenced endorsement of sexual assault myths. Undergraduate students read a vignette depicting a fictional sexual assault that varied with respect to the relationship and the amount of postassault contact between the survivor and offender and completed measures of the strength of their justice motive and their endorsement of sexual assault myths. Results indicated that participants (N = 419) who held a strong justice motive showed higher endorsement of sexual assault myths. Participants were also more likely to endorse sexual assault myths when there was postoffense contact between the survivor and offender. The implications of these findings and their relevance to the criminal justice system are discussed, including the need for further research into the creation of survivor-oriented education and training capable of counteracting bias toward survivors of sexual violence and producing sustained attitudinal changes.

Experiences of Gender-Based Violence at a South African University: Prevalence and Effect on Rape Myth Acceptance

Instances of gender-based violence (GBV) on university campuses are rarely reported to the authorities. This makes it difficult to gauge the prevalence of this problem, which in turn affects efforts for prevention. This article describes a university-wide online survey aimed at assessing, first, the prevalence of GBV experienced by the three sectors in the community-students, academic and research staff, and professional/administrative staff. Many of the findings concurred with research elsewhere-students were the predominant victims of GBV; men were the main perpetrators; and instances of rape occurred mainly when the victim/survivor was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In contrast to some of the more well-known U.S. surveys (e.g., Georgetown University), we found relatively few instances of students being exploited by staff members. Occurrences of contrapower harassment were also reported in our survey. The second aim investigated whether rape myth acceptance was related to experiences of GBV. We found that women who had these experiences were more rejecting of rape myths than women who had not had such experiences. The opposite was found for White men. White men who had experienced GBV were more accepting of the rape myths than those who had not had such experiences. It was suggested that this reflected a need for these male victims to establish their hegemonic masculine identity. In general, the level of rape myth acceptance was relatively low. This suggested that widespread victim-blame, and self-blame does not account for the low levels of GBV reports to officials. A limitation of the study was the relatively low response rate (1,350 respondents), which was likely caused by the student protests over university fees that were ongoing at the time of the survey. These protests caused considerable disturbance for all sectors of the university community.

Attitudes toward the Punishment of Juvenile and Adult Sexual Offenders in Canada: The Roles of Sentencing Goals and Criminal Justice Motivations

There has long been concern among academics and those in criminal justice professions regarding the public's seemingly enthusiastic support for punitive responses to sexual offenders, such as long sentences, residency restrictions, registration, and community notification. Yet there has been little research to date on what motives may be driving the endorsement of these policies, particularly registration. Our understanding is further muddled by conflicting research on punitive attitudes in general, with some suggesting that retributive motives are behind such attitudes while others report the efficacy of utilitarian motives. Using a sample of 376 university students, the current study sought to determine whether retributive, utilitarian, or other motives drove support for longer sentences and registration for juvenile and adult sexual offenders. Results indicated that motives largely differed between the two sanctions as well as the two age groups of offenders. Both retributive and utilitarian motives contributed to support for policies, suggesting that these motives work in congruence with one another. This has clear implications for policy discussions, as advocates for criminal justice reform should be appealing to both motives to change societal attitudes.

Is It Harassment? Perceptions of Sexual Harassment Among Lawyers and Undergraduate Students

This study examined differences between lawyers (n = 91) and undergraduate students (n = 120) regarding their evaluation of behavior as sexual harassment (SH) and blame attributions toward offender and victim. The current study used a cross-sectional, comparative, independent measures design. Also examined was the correlation between these perceptions and belief in a just world (BJW) hypothesis. The respondents were presented with case descriptions of SH that were identical in all aspects but the perpetrator and victim's gender (alternately depicted as male/female and female/male). Results showed that both lawyers and students agreed that the described event comprised SH, yet gender bias was evident. Both lawyers and students were more inclined to regard the behavior as SH when the vignette description depicted the perpetrator as a man (i.e., female victim) than as a woman (male victim). Gender bias was also evident in the examination of blame attributions, which were higher toward a male (vs. female) harasser. Nonetheless, the findings indicate that lawyers were less biased than students, manifested in less victim-blame and higher perpetrator blame attributions. No correlation between BJW and perceiving the vignette as SH and blame attribution was found. The findings indicate discriminatory judgments of SH based on gender. Gender-related stereotypes and sociocultural explanations are discussed.

Blaming the Victim of Acquaintance Rape: Individual, Situational, and Sociocultural Factors

Victims of rape are uniquely vulnerable for being blamed for their assault relative to victims of other interpersonal crimes and thus much research has been conducted to understand why this is the case. But the study of victim blaming in acquaintance rape cases is hindered by contradictory empirical results. Early investigations in victim blaming often treated acquaintance rapes and stranger rapes as synonymous and thus much of these data are suspect for drawing conclusions particular to acquaintance rape. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the research literature on victim blame in acquaintance rape cases, highlighting inconsistencies and drawing particular attention to areas of research in need of further exploration. Specifically, we review the commonly studied individual (perceiver) factors that influence victim blaming, as well as common situational (target) factors included or manipulated within sexual assault scenarios. Our review reveals many inconsistent findings and interactions between perceiver and scenario factors. In an effort to make sense of these complex interactions and inconsistent findings, we suggest a need for more transparency in describing the scenarios used in research on victim blaming in sexual assault cases and greater empirical attention to sociocultural factors that may influence blaming tendencies.