Despite efforts to educate and create community awareness, rape myths and victim-blaming attitudes persist in society. This research explores whether advocates express victim-questioning attitudes or questions, negative judgment, or frustration regarding victims’ behavior or choices. Data from interviews with 58 advocates reveal that the majority (76%) of advocates never expressed any victim-questioning attitudes during the interview. However, responses from 14 advocates (24%) show that victim-questioning has evolved into a much more complex, subtle form than historical victim blaming or acceptance of rape myths.
AmirM. (1971). Patterns of forcible rape. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
2.
AndersenM. L.RenzettiC. M. (1980). Rape crisis counseling and the culture of individualism. Contemporary Crises, 4, 323-339.
3.
BergB. (1989). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
4.
BestC.DanskyB.KilpatrickD. (1992). Medical students’ attitudes about female rape victims. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 7, 175-188.
5.
BrecklinL. R.FordeD. R. (2001). A meta-analysis of rape education programs. Violence and Victims, 16, 303-321.
6.
BrownmillerS. (1972). Against our will: Men, women and rape. New York: Simon and Schuster.
7.
BuddieA. M.MillerA. G. (2001). Beyond rape myths: A more complex view of perceptions of rape victims. Sex Roles, 45, 139-160.
8.
BurtM. (1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 217-230.
9.
CahillA. J. (2001). Rethinking rape. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
10.
CampbellR. (1998). The community response to rape: Victims’ experiences with the legal, medical, and mental health systems. American Journal of Community Psychology, 26, 355-379.
11.
CampbellR.SeflT.BarnesH. E.AhrensC. E.WascoS. M.Zaragoza-DiesfeldY. (1999). Community services for rape survivors: Enhancing psychological well-being or increasing trauma?Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67, 847-858.
12.
CarmodyD.WashingtonL. (2001). Rape myth acceptance among college women: The impact of race and prior victimization. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 16, 424-436.
13.
CowanG. (2000). Women’s hostility toward women and rape and sexual harassment myths. Violence Against Women, 6, 238-246.
14.
CowanG.CampbellR. (1995). Rape causal attitudes among adolescents. Journal of Sex Research, 32, 145-153.
15.
DoyleS.BarbatoC. (1999). Justice delayed is justice denied: The experiences of women in court as victims of sexual assault. In BreckenridgeJ.LaingL. (Eds.), Challenging silence: The innovative responses to sexual and domestic violence (pp. 47-58). Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
16.
Du MontJ.MillerK.MyhrT. (2003). The role of “real rape” and “real victim” stereotypes in the police reporting practices of sexually assaulted women. Violence Against Women, 9, 466-486.
17.
DyeE.RothS. (1990). Psychotherapists’ knowledge about and attitudes toward sexual assault victim clients. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 14, 191-212.
18.
EstrichS. (1987). Real rape. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
19.
FisherB. S.DaigleL.CullenF. T.TunerM. G. (2003). Reporting sexual victimization to the police and others: Results from a national-level study of college women. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 30, 6-38.
20.
FlavinJ. (2001). Feminism for the mainstream criminologist: An invitation. Journal of Criminal Justice, 29, 271-285.
21.
FreseB.MoyaM.MegiasJ. (2004). Social perception of rape: How rape myth acceptance modulates the influence of situational factors. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 19, 143-161.
22.
GarlandT. (2005). An overview of sexual assault and sexual assault myths. In ReddingtonF. P.KreiselB. (Eds.), Sexual assault: The victims, the perpetrators, and the criminal justice system (pp. 3–26). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
23.
GiacopassiD. J.DullR. T. (1986). Gender and racial differences in the acceptance of rape myths within a college population. Sex Roles, 15, 63-75.
24.
HolmstromL.BurgessA. W. (1978). The victim of rape: Institutional reactions. New York: John Wiley.
25.
IliffeeG.SteedL. G. (2000). Exploring the counselor’s experience of working with perpetrators and survivors of domestic violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 15, 393-412.
26.
JiminezJ.AbreuJ. (2003). Race and sex effects on attitudinal perceptions of acquaintance rape. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50, 252-256.
27.
KirkwoodM. K.CecilD. (2001). Marital rape: A student assessment of rape laws and the marital exemption. Violence Against Women, 7, 1234-1253.
28.
LeeJ.PomeroyE. C.YooS.RheinboldtK. T. (2005). Attitudes toward rape: A comparison between Asian and Caucasian college students. Violence Against Women, 11, 177-196.
29.
LernerM. J. (1980). The belief in a just world: A fundamental delusion. New York: Plenum Press.
30.
LonswayK. A.FitzgeraldL. (1994). Rape myths: In review. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 133-164.
31.
MacyR. J.NuriusP.NorrisJ. (2006). Responding in their best interest: Contextualizing women’s coping with acquaintance sexual aggression. Violence Against Women, 12, 478-500.
32.
MaierS. L. (2004). Navigating the transformation of rape crisis centers and programs: Experiences, views and struggles of rape advocates. Unpublished doctorial dissertation, University of Delaware, Newark, DE.
33.
MartinP. Y. (2005). Rape work: Victims, gender, and emotions in organization and community context. New York: Routledge.
34.
McGregorM. J.WiebeE.MarionS. A.LivingstoneC. (2000). Why don’t more women report sexual assault to the police?Canadian Medical Association Journal, 162, 659-662.
35.
MilesM. B.HubermanM. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook, 2/e. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
36.
Mohler-KuoM.DowdallG. W.KossM. P.WechslerH. (2004). Correlates of rape while intoxicated in a national sample of college women. Journal of Alcohol Studies, 65, 37-45.
37.
NagelB.MatsuoH.McIntyreK. P.MorrisonN. (2002). Attitudes toward victims of rape: Effects of gender, race, religion, and social class. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 20, 725-737.
38.
PayneB. K. (2007). Victim advocates’ perceptions of the role of health care workers in sexual assault cases. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 18, 81-94.
39.
RenzettiC. M. (1979). Theories and definitions of rape by rape crisis counselors. Unpublished Master’s thesis, University of Delaware, Newark, DE.
40.
RubinH.RubinI. (1995). Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data. London: Sage.
41.
RyanG.BernardH. R. (2003). Techniques to identify themes. Field Methods, 15, 85-109.
42.
ScullyD. (1994). Understanding sexual violence: A study of convicted rapists. New York: Routledge.
43.
SchwendingerJ. R.SchwendingerH. (1983). Rape and inequality. Beverley Hills, CA: Sage.
44.
ShotlandR. L.GoodsteinL. (1983). Just because she doesn’t want to doesn’t mean it’s rape: An experimentally based causal model of the perception of rape in dating situation. Social Psychology Quarterly, 46, 220-232.
45.
StraussA.CorbinJ. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
46.
UllmanS. E. (2003). A critical review of field studies on the link of alcohol and adult sexual assault in women. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 8, 471-486.
47.
UllmanS. E. (2007). A 10-year update of “Review and critique of empirical studies of rape avoidance.”Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34, 411-429.
48.
UllmanS. E.TownsendS. M.FilipasH. H.StarzynskiL. L. (2007). Structural models of the relations of assault severity, social support, avoidance coping, self-blame, and PTSD among sexual assault survivors. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 31, 23-37.
49.
WardC. (1995). Attitudes toward rape: Feminist and social psychological perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
50.
WhatleyM. A. (1996). Victim characteristics influencing attributions of responsibility to rape victims: A meta-analysis. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 1, 81-96.
51.
WhiteB.Robinson KurpiusS. (1999). Attitudes toward rape victims: Effects of gender and professional status. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14, 989-995.
52.
WieheV.RichardsA. (1995). Intimate betrayal: Understanding and responding to the trauma of rape. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
