FACTORS PREDICTING THE BLAMING OF VICTIMS OF PHYSICAL CHILD-ABUSE OR RAPE

This study examined factors that were hypothesized to predict victim b lame in the case of physical child abuse and in the case of rape. Ques tionnaires were completed by 897 college students. The results suggest ed that the defensive attribution hypothesis (particularly the notion of harm avoidance motives) was consistent with the current findings. I n contrast, just world theory was not supported. Victim blame in child abuse and victim blame in rape were predicted by similar factors. The factors that best predicted victim blame were empathy, locus of contr ol, and prior physical abuse. Personal similarity was a statistically significant predictor for both child blame and rape victim blame. Just world beliefs had virtually no predictive power, when other factors w ere taken into consideration.