Self-Blame Among Sexual Assault Victims Prospectively Predicts Revictimization: A Perceived Sociolegal Context Model of Risk

Abstract

This investigation focused on relationships among sexual assault, self-blame, and sexual revictimization. Among a female undergraduate sample of adolescent sexual assault victims, those endorsing greater self-blame following sexual assault were at increased risk for sexual revictimization during a 4.2-month follow-up period. Moreover, to the extent that sexual assault victims perceived nonconsensual sex is permitted by law, they were more likely to blame themselves for their own assaults. Discussion focuses on situating victim-based risk factors within sociocultural context.

Notes

Note. Scenarios that do not share common subscripts differ at the .05 level.

¹To rule out a competing explanation that support for our model was garnered as an artifact of measurement order (i.e., SRV might have influenced perceived legality ratings, obtained as the final study measure), an alternative mediational pathway (i.e., effect of post-SA self-blame on perceived legality is mediated by SRV) was also tested. Using linear regression analysis, victims' legal perceptions were simultaneously regressed onto victims' post-SA self-blame and SRV (dummy coded). Undermining support for the alternative model, SRV no longer predicted legal perceptions (β = − .08, ns) while post-SA self-blame continued to predict legal perceptions, β = − .25, p < .01.