Observer and Victim Sexuality’s Effect on Blame of Heterosexual and Homosexual Male Sexual Assault Victims

• In Event: Posters II

Abstract

Research into perceptions of victim and perpetrator culpability in cases of sexual assault has traditionally focused on the impact of perceiver, victim, perpetrator, and assault characteristics. It has been found that factors like perceiver attitudes, victim sexuality, perpetrator gender, and assault type all influence attributions of blame in a sexual assault scenario. Building on previous research examining the effect of perceiver sexuality on empathy and attributions of blame, this research evaluates the effect of perceiver sexuality on perceptions of culpability in a sexual assault where the victim is either a heterosexual or a homosexual male. Using an online platform called MTurk to distribute a vignette and subsequent survey, four groups (heterosexual male, gay male, heterosexual female, lesbian female) were presented with a rape vignette depicting the acquaintance rape of a male victim by a male coworker. The male victim was either homosexual or heterosexual. The participants’ reactions to the vignette were assessed with the rape empathy scale, attitudes toward rape scale, rape myth acceptance, and scales of perpetrator and victim culpability.

Authors

• Melissa Reihe, University of South Dakota

• Olivia Mann, University of South Dakota

• Bridget K. Diamond-Welch, University of South Dakota