Perceptions of behaviours in stranger rape cases: a sequence analysis approach

ABSTRACT

Psychological research into perceptions of sexual attacks, rape myths, and scripts usually involves questionnaires or qualitative reports. A new method for investigating the perceived dynamic sequence of behaviours between victim and attacker could help to outline common perceptions. The current study uses a Behaviour Sequence Analysis approach to investigate females’ perceptions of the interaction between a female victim and unknown, male attacker. A sample of females was asked to report their perceptions of the interaction between a female and stranger at night, leading up to a rape attack. The results indicated that females did not perceive weapons or excessive force to be likely behaviours. Also, females responded that most attackers would begin by first attempting to engage a female in conversation. An important contribution of the current research is to show temporal associations between behaviours. In addition, the current research highlights the strength of sequence analysis for understanding perceptions of dynamic patterns of violent behaviours.

KEYWORDS:

• Rape
• sexual assault
• behaviour sequence analysis
• rape myths
• rape scripts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

David A. Keatley http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6601-1939

Notes

1. Although this adds a constraint to the generalisability of the data, it is necessary to have some kind of parameter on the situation to allow aggregation of data. The use of a bar also overlaps previous research that has established stranger rapes to be associated with bars/drinking establishments (Waterhouse, Reynolds, & Egan, 2016).

2. These additions happened late in the testing stage, and therefore were not added to the behaviour list for remaining participants. Future research, however, should include these behaviours.

3. No data in the final analysis had fewer than six behaviours selected, which indicated the final sample of participants were suitably invested in the study and completed it properly.

4. Full transition matrices of all behaviours pairs are available from the correspondence author, on request.