After developing a theoretical rationale for this proposition, data from a sample of the general public and a sample of convicted rapists are used to explore its validity. The data consist of responses to a vignette depicting, with experimental variations, a violent interaction between a man and a woman, plus demographic and attitudinal information. Results indicate that rapists and the general public hold many of the same beliefs about violence. They differ primarily in what they do with those beliefs, with the rapist sample tending more than the general public to offer justifications of high violence situations and to dissociate blame and 'badness' from perceptions of violence. These results are discussed in light of their support for the original proposition, and suggestions made for the many additional research areas that could be explored, based on the same theoretical rationale that prompted this work. Finally, the paper discusses the role that data, as such, can play in altering the prevailing cultural ideology and its effects. (Author abstract)