Citation

Harper CA, Franco V, Wills M. Sex. Abuse 2019; ePub(ePub): 1079063219825869.

Affiliation

Nottingham Trent University, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1079063219825869

PMID

30741099

Abstract

According to recent analyses, Bumby's RAPE scale of rape-supportive cognitions about women and sexual assault comprises two factors. Excusing rape serves to reduce abusers' culpability for their offending, and ascribing blame to victims, while justifying rape is associated with a sense of sexual entitlement. The distinct effects of these factors on rape judgments have not yet been investigated. We examined whether these belief clusters differentially explained judgments of perpetrator innocence after priming cues related to each of them. We used a cross-sectional design ( N = 217) to test our hypotheses. As predicted, we found that excusing rape cognitions contributed to exaggerated innocence judgments when the victim paid the bill on a first date (potentially indicative of romantic or sexual interest). However, contrary to expectations, there was no evidence that participants justified rape when the perpetrator paid the bill. Implications for conceptualizing the functions of rape-supportive cognitions are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

IAT; excusing rape; justifying rape; rape; rape-supportive cognitions