Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Rape Perceptions, Gender Role Attitudes, and Victim-Perpetrator Acquaintance

  • Published:
Sex Roles Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The connection between rape perceptions, gender role attitudes, and victim-perpetrator acquaintance was examined. One hundred fifty Israeli students rated their perceptions of the victim, the perpetrator, the situation, and the appropriate punishment, after reading scenarios in which rape was committed by a neighbor, an ex-boyfriend, and a current life partner. Significant negative correlations were found between gender-role attitudes and four measures of rape perceptions. “Traditionals” minimized the severity of all rapes more than “Egalitarians” did. As the acquaintance level increased, there was a greater tendency to minimize the severity of the rape, in the perceptions of the victim, the situation, and the punishment; the situation was characterized less as rape, and was perceived as less violating of the victim's rights and less psychologically damaging. Women tended to have more egalitarian attitudes than men did, and women were less likely to minimize the severity of the rape in the measures of perceptions of the situation and the appropriate punishment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Acock, A. C., & Ireland, N. K. (1983). Attribution of blame in rape cases: The impact of norm violation, gender, and sex-role attitude. Sex Roles, 9, 179–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allegier, E. R., & McCormick, N. B. (1983). Changing boundaries: Gender role and sex behavior. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel. (2002). A report on sexual violence in Isreal in 2002. Jerusalem, Israel: A.R.C.C.I.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, N. J., & Feild, H. S. (1977). Sex differences in university students' attitudes toward rape. College Student Personnel, 18, 93–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beere, C. A., King, D. W., Beere, D. B., & King, L. A. (1984). Sex-Role Egalitarianism Scale: A measure of attitudes toward equality between the sexes. Sex Roles, 10, 563–576.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, S. T., Kuriloff, P. J., & Lottes, I. (1994). Understanding attributions of blame in stranger rape and date rape situations: An examination of gender, race, identification, and students' perception of rape victims. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 24, 1719–1734.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bem, S. L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 155–162.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bogoch, B. R., & Don-Yechiya, R. (2000). The gender of justice: Bias against women in Israeli courts. Jerusalem, Israel: The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bridges, J. S. (1991). Perceptions of date rape and stranger rape: A difference in sex role expectations and rape-supportive beliefs. Sex Roles, 24, 291–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bridges, J. S., & McGrail, C. A. (1989). Attributions of responsibility for date and stranger rape. Sex Roles, 21, 273–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brownmiller, S. (1975). Against our will: Man, women, and rape. New York: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burt, M. (1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 217–230.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Caron, S. L., & Carter, D. B. (1997). The relationships among sex role orientation, egalitarianism, attitudes toward sexuality, and attitudes toward violence against women. Journal of Social Psychology, 137, 568–587.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Check, J. V. P., & Malamuth, N. M. (1983). Sex role stereotyping and reactions to depictions of stranger versus acquaintance rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 344–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costin, F., & Schwarz, N. (1987). Beliefs about rape and women's social roles: A four-nation study. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2, 46–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cowan, G., (2000). Beliefs about the causes of four types of rape. Sex-Roles, 42, 807–823.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ewoldt, C. A., Monson, C. M., & Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J. (2000). Attributions about rape in a continuum of dissolving marital {relationship.} Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 15, 1175–1183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feild, H. S. (1978). Attitudes toward rape: A comparative analysis of police, rapists, crisis counselors, and citizens. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 156–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman-Summers, S., & Lindner, K. (1976). Perceptions of victims and defendants in criminal assault cases. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 3, 135–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, P. A., Duthie, D. A., & Graf, R. G. (1987). Attribution of responsibility to rapist and victim: The influence of victim's attractiveness and rape-related information. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2, 243–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freetly, A. J. H., & Kane, E. W. (1995). Men's and women's perceptions of non-consensual sexual intercourse. Sex Roles, 33, 785–802.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Groth, A. N., Burgess, A. W., & Holmstrom, L. L. (1977). Rape: Power, anger, and sexuality. American Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 1239–1243.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, C., & Anderson, E. (1973). Attribution of fault to a rape victim as a function of respectability of the victim. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26, 415–419.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, B. E., Kuck, D. L., & Schander, P. R. (1997). Rape myth acceptance and sociodemographic characteristics: A multidimensional analysis. Sex Roles, 36, 693–707.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanekar, S., & Nazareth, A. M. (1988). Attributed rape victim's fault as a function of her attractiveness, physical hurt and emotional disturbance. Social Behavior, 3, 37–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, L. A., & King, D. W. (1985). Sex-Role egalitarianism: Biological and personality correlates. Psychological Reports, 57, 787–792.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, L. A., & King, D. W. (1990). Abbreviated measures of sex role egalitarian attitudes. Sex Roles, 23, 659–673.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, L. A., & King, D. W. (1997). Sex-Role Egalitarianism Scale: Development, psychometric properties and recommendations for future research. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 71–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koss, M. P., Dinero, T. E., Seibel, C. A., & Cox, S. L. (1988). Stranger and acquaintance rape: Are there differences in the victim's experience? Psychology of Women Quarterly, 12, 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koss, M. P., Goodman, L. A., Browne, A., Fitzgerald, L. F., Keita, G. P., & Russo, N. F. (1994). No safe haven: Male violence against women at home, at work, and in the community. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • L'Armand, K., & Pepitone, A. (1982). Judgment of rape: A study of victim–rapist relationship and victim sexual history. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 8, 134–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lonsway, K. A., & Fitzgerald, L. F. (1994). Rape myths: In review. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 133–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason, K. O., & Lu, Y. (1988). Attitudes toward women's familial roles: Changes in the United States 1997–1985. Gender and Society, 2, 39–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • McHugh, M. C., & Frieze, I. H. (1997). The measurements of gender role attitudes: A review and commentary. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merrell, J. L. (1997). The effects of gender role attitudes, participant gender, and situational factors on attitudes toward marital rape and sexual obligation. Dissertation Abstract International, 59(3B), 1373.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monson, C. M., Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., & Biderup, T. (2000). Does “no” really mean “no” after you say “yes”?: Attributions about date and marital rape. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 15, 1156–1174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rice, T. W., & Coates, D. L. (1995). Gender role attitudes in the southern United States. Gender and Society, 9, 738–750.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, D. E. H., (1984). Sexual exploitations: Rape, child sexual abuse, and workplace harassment. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanchez, D. M. (1997). The relationship between attitudes towards women, rape myth acceptance and perceptions of marital versus stranger rape. Dissertation Abstract International, 58(3B), 1545.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz, N., & Brand, J. F. (1983). Effects of salience of rape on sex role attitudes, trust, and self-esteem in non-raped women. European Journal of Social Psychology, 13, 71–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shotland, R. L., & Goodstein, L. (1983). Just because she doesn't want to doesn't mean it's rape: An experimentally based casual model of the perception of rape in a dating situation. Social Psychology Quarterly, 46, 220–232.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shotland, R. L., & Goodstein, L. (1992). Sexual precedence reduces the perceived legitimacy of sexual refusal: An examination of attributions concerning date rape and consensual sex. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 756–764.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simonson, K., & Subich, L. M. (1999). Rape perceptions as a function of gender-role traditionality and victim–perpetrator association. Sex Roles, 40, 617–634.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suzuki, A. (1991). Egalitarian sex role attitudes: Scale development and comparison of American and Japanese Women. Sex Roles, 24, 245–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tetreault, P. A., & Barnett, M. A. (1987). Reactions to stranger and acquaintance rape. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 11, 353–358.

    Google Scholar 

  • Viki, G. T., Abrams, D., & Masser, B. (2004). Evaluating stranger rape and acquaintance rape: The role of benevolent sexism in perpetrator blame and recommended sentence length. Law and Human Behavior, 28, 295–303.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ward, C. A. (1995) Attitudes towards rape: Feminist and social psychological perspectives. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, Y., Ron, N., & Wolters, J. (1996). Modularity in normal judgement by police officers. Policing and Society, 6, 37–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yescavage, K. (1999). Teaching women a lesson: Sexually aggressive and sexually nonaggressive men's perceptions of acquaintance and date rape. Violence Against Women, 5, 796–812.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 52900, Israel

    Sarah Ben-David & Ofra Schneider

Authors
  1. Sarah Ben-David
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ofra Schneider
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah Ben-David.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ben-David, S., Schneider, O. Rape Perceptions, Gender Role Attitudes, and Victim-Perpetrator Acquaintance. Sex Roles 53, 385–399 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-6761-4

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-6761-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation