U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Perceived Likelihood of Rape as an Operational Measure of Rape Victim's Causal Responsibility

NCJ Number
115104
Journal
Indian Journal of Social Work Volume: 69 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1988) Pages: 67-74
Author(s)
S Kanekar; K Shirgavi
Date Published
1988
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Hindsighted perceived likelihood of rape was used in this study as an operational measure of causal responsibility attributed to a rape victim.
Abstract
The experiment had a factorial design of 2 (subject's sex) x 2 (physically attractive vs. unattractive victim) x 2 (physically hurt vs. not hurt victim) x 2 (emotionally disturbed vs. not disturbed victim) with 15 subjects per cell. Apart from subject's sex, the experimental conditions were manipulated through a passage describing an incident of rape. The dependent measures were: the length of recommended imprisonment for the rapist and the perceived likelihood of rape. Longer imprisonment was recommended for the rapist when the victim was physically hurt rather than not hurt, and emotionally disturbed rather than not disturbed. Greater likelihood of rape was perceived for the attractive rather than the unattractive victim, the physically hurt rather than the not hurt victim, and the emotionally disturbed rather than the not disturbed victim. These findings were discussed in the context of a proposed theoretical distinction between causal and moral responsibility. (Author abstract)

Downloads

No download available

Availability