Findings indicate that men engage in victim blaming more readily than women; victims who are acquainted with their attacker tend to be assigned more responsibility for a rape; and participants who view themselves as similar to the victim attribute more blame to the perpetrator of the rape, demonstrating the effects of “harm avoidance” and “blame avoidance.” Attribution of responsibility for observed events entails a determination of causative factors. The way people assign responsibility for events consists of a complex amalgamation of personal, psychological, and situational factors. Several theories have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of victim blaming. The most commonly cited theory is known as the Just World Theory which states that negative rape victim perception occurs as a result of overcompensation for a seemingly undeserved act. The second theory is known as the Defensive Attribution Hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, people increase or reduce blame depending on their perceived similarity with the victim and the perceived likelihood of similar future victimization befalling them. This paper explores the effect of participation gender, type of rape, and perceived similarity with the victim on rape blame attribution and examines how the above two theories are employed to account for the research findings. References