Rape Victim and Perpetrator Blame: Effects of Victim Ethnicity, Perpetrator Ethnicity, Participant Gender, and Participant Ethnicity

Abstract: The aim of the current study is to examine the influence of the victim's, perpetrator's, and participant's ethnicity on victim and perpetrator blame attributions. Additionally, comparisons between males and females and a community and student sample were made. Participants read a rape vignette in the form of a newspaper article and subsequently attributed victim and perpetrator blame. A 2 (victim's ethnicity) X 2 (perpetrator's ethnicity) X 2 (gender of participant) X 2 (ethnicity of participant) between subjects design were used. Measures of blame attributions toward the victim and perpetrator were used as dependent variables for both a community (n = 211) and student (n = 200) sample. Main results showed that participants with an immigrant background and participants from the community sample attributed significantly more victim and less perpetrator blame while gender of the participants failed to reach significance in most analyses. Several interactions involving victim and perpetrator ethnicity emerged and were subsequently discussed as well as suggestions for future research.