Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine empathy with a hypothetical rape victim and rapist based on sexual victimization experience and/or sexual perpetration experience, and participant gender. Undergraduates (n = 531; 385 female) completed the Rape-Victim and Rape-Perpetrator Empathy Scales (Smith and Frieze 2003) and the Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Victimization and Perpetration (Koss et al. 2007). Participants were categorized into four sexual aggression experience groups, which included “nonexperienced” (n = 220; 129 female), “victimization-only” (n = 206; 185 female), “perpetration-only” (n = 8; 2 female), and “overlapping” (both victimization and perpetration experience, n = 42; 25 female). The majority of those with perpetration experience also reported victimization experience (overlapping experience; 84%), and the perpetration-only group was too small to test. Those with victimization-only experience reported greater empathy with a rape victim than those with overlapping experience and those nonexperienced, but the latter two groups did not differ. No differences were found among these three groups for empathy with a rapist. Women reported greater empathy with a rape victim, and lesser empathy with a rapist, than men. Those nonexperienced and with overlapping experience may not be able to take the perspective of and empathize with a rape victim to the same extent as those with victimization-only experience, perhaps due to less similarity in experience. Future researchers should consider those with overlapping sexual aggression experience as distinct from those with victimization-only or perpetration-only experience.
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