Rape victim and perpetrator blame and the Just World hypothesis: The influence of victim gender and age

Abstract

Victims of rape are sometimes blamed for the assaults against them. Research has examined primarily female victims; much less is known about men as victims and whether victim age affects attributions of victim blame. Furthermore, the study investigated the effects of Belief in a Just World (BJW) on blame attributions. Employing a vignette-type experimental study with a 2 (gender of participant)×2 (victim's gender)×2 (victim's age)×2 (participant BJW score) between-subjects design and several measures of blame attributions towards victim and perpetrator as dependent variables, a community sample (n = 164) participated. The main results were as hypothesised, namely that young male victims were attributed more blame, particularly by participants scoring high on BJW. Overall, victim blame level was low and perpetrator blame was high, and BJW was a powerful predictor of blame attributions.

Keywords:

• Belief in a Just World
• perpetrator blame attributions
• rape victim age
• rape victim gender
• secondary victimisation
• victim blame attributions

Acknowledgements

This research was supported financially by The Swedish Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority.

Notes

1. A principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was conducted on the eight blame attribution items. PCA extracted two factors which accounted for 54.2% of the variance. One factor pertained to perpetrator blame (high, positive loadings for the four items measuring perpetrator blame, eigenvalue 3.02, variance explained 37.7%) and one factor measured victim blame (high, positive loadings for the four victim blame items, eigenvalue 1.32, variance explained 16.5%). Thus, the two dependent variables constructed did measure perpetrator and victim blame attributions, respectively.

2. Dalbert, C., Montada, L., & Schmitt, M. (1987). The General Belief in a Just World. The English version of the instrument was downloaded from http://www.erzwiss.uni-halle.de/gliederung/paed/ppsych/GWG_allg_eng.pdf