IT WAS HYPOTHESIZED THAT FEMALES WILL GENERALLY ATTRIBUTE LESS MORAL RESPONSIBILITY TO THE VICTIM THAN MALES AND THAT THE OPPOSITE WILL BE TRUE WITH REGARD TO THE OFFENDER. PARTICIPANTS IN THE STUDY INCLUDED 96 MALE STUDENTS AND 96 FEMALE STUDENTS WHO WERE RANDOMLY ASSIGNED TO READ A RAPE DESCRIPTION CORRESPONDING TO ONE OF FOUR TYPES OF HETEROSEXUAL RAPE (BLITZ, CONFIDENCE, FRIENDLY, AND INITIAL CONSENT). THEY SUBSEQUENTLY ATTRIBUTED MORAL RESPONSIBILITY TO THE VICTIM AND THE OFFENDER FOR FIVE TYPES OF MORAL RESPONSIBILITY (ASSOCIATION, COMMISSION, FORESEEABILITY, INTENTIONALITY, AND JUSTIFICATION). A 2 X 4 FACTORIAL DESIGN WAS EMPLOYED TO ANALYZE DATA, WITH REPEATED MEASURES AND WITH PARTICIPANT GENDER AND TYPE OF RAPE AS BETWEEN-PARTICIPANT FACTORS. THE ATTRIBUTION OF MORAL RESPONSIBILITY WAS MADE ON A 1 (DISAGREE) TO 99 (AGREE) SCALE; THE NUMBER 50 WAS ANCHORED WITH THE WORDS UNCERTAIN OR NO OPINION. IN MOST INSTANCES, STUDY HYPOTHESES WERE SUPPORTED. EXCEPTIONS FOR THE VICTIM OCCURRED IN THE INITIAL CONSENT RAPE WHERE ATTRIBUTIONS OF FORESEEABILITY WERE MADE. FOR THE INITIAL CONSENT RAPE, MALES WERE MORE CERTAIN THAN FEMALES THAT THE VICTIM WAS NOT MORALLY RESPONSIBLE. MALES BLAMED MALES AND FEMALES BLAMED FEMALES FOR NOT TAKING PRECAUTIONS IN THE INITIAL CONSENT RAPE. CONSIDERING THAT ONLY 4 PERCENT OF ALL REPORTED RAPES ARE ESTIMATED TO BE CAUSED BY VICTIM BEHAVIOR, THE QUESTION OF THE VICTIM'S MORAL RESPONSIBILITY SEEMS TO BE AN IMPORTANT ONE. THIS IS PARTICULARLY TRUE WHEN DEFENSE ATTORNEYS DRAW INTO QUESTION THE MORAL CHARACTER OF THE RAPE VICTIM. REFERENCES AND SUPPORTING DATA ARE PROVIDED. (DEP)