NCJ Number
154522
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1995) Pages: 71-84
Date Published
1995
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This research investigated the effects of sexual violence presented in feature-length films.
Abstract
A total of 193 university students (87 males and 106 females) were randomly assigned to view one of four films: sexual aggression against a male ("Deliverance"), sexual aggression against a female ("Straw Dogs"), physical aggression ("Die Hard 2"), or a neutral film that contained no explicit scenes of physical or sexual aggression ("Days of Thunder"). After viewing the film, all subjects were asked to complete a 252-item questionnaire that consisted of one of four randomly ordered presentations of the following measures: the Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence Scale, the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, the Attraction to Sexual Aggression Scale, the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, the Mehrabian-Epstein Empathy Scale, and a move-rating questionnaire. Participants then viewed a re-enactment of a rape trial and completed a 23-item, rape-trial questionnaire. Results showed large and consistent differences between males and females; males were more accepting of interpersonal violence and rape myths, more attracted to sexual aggression, less sympathetic toward the rape trial victims, and less likely to judge the defendant as guilty of rape. Of particular interest was the finding that males were equally affected by a film that depicted sexual violence regardless of victim gender; on the other hand, females were not affected by film type. 5 figures, 2 tables, and 31 references