PERCEPTIONS OF RAPE BASED ON SEX AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION OF VICTIM

Victims of acquaintance rape are often blamed for provoking the assaul t. Prior research indicates that men with a high belief in a just worl d tend to blame the victim more than men with a low belief in a just w orld. In contrast, women with a high just world belief tend to blame t he victim less than women with a low just world belief. College studen ts (N = 108) read a scenario of a rape in which the sex and sexual ori entation of the victim were varied. An Ii-item questionnaire measured respondents' perceptions of the rape and evaluations of the responsibi lity of the perpetrator and victim. As hypothesized, women were percei ved to be more at fault for the incident if they were heterosexual and men were perceived to be more at fault if they were homosexual. The h ypotheses that men with a high belief in a just world would perceive t he perpetrator as less responsible for the rape and women with a high belief in a just world would perceive him as more responsible was supp orted only for heterosexual victims. Victim blaming is related to the sex and sexual orientation of the victim. Reactions to rape are largel y based on stereotypes of rape such as stereotypes about who the typic al rape victim is and stereotypes blaming the victim. In addition, men and women differ in their evaluations of the perpetrator and victim o f rape.