Sexuality’s Effect on Blame of Heterosexual, Bisexual, and Homosexual Female 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. The effect of victim sexuality has not been sufficiently explored. The present research explores the effect of victim sexuality on attribution of blame in cases of assault where the victim is a heterosexual, bisexual or lesbian female. MTurk, an online platform, was used to distribute a vignette depicting an acquaintance assault of a female victim who was either heterosexual, bisexual, or lesbian. The survey was distributed to gay men, heterosexual men, lesbian women, and heterosexual women. The participants then completed a survey that included scales for victim and perpetrator empathy, attitudes towards rape, rape myth acceptance, and victim and perpetrator culpability.

Authors

• Olivia Mann, University of South Dakota

• Melissa Reihe, University of South Dakota

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