NCJ Number
177879
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 5 Issue: 7 Dated: July 1999 Pages: 796-812
Date Published
1999
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study assessed the influence of both situational factors and individual differences on college men's perceptions of acquaintance-rape and date-rape scenarios.
Abstract
Forty-six undergraduate men were selected from a pool of approximately 300 men who participated in a mass screening available to all introductory psychology students at a mid-sized, predominantly white university in the southeastern United States. All respondents were between the ages of 17 and 24. The criterion for selection was based on scores from the Koss and Oros Sexual Experiences Survey. Participants were asked to read eight scenarios that portrayed sexual aggression. Six of the eight scenarios manipulated two dimensions: the type of relationship and the type of victim refusal. Four by three by two by three analyses of variance were used to analyze the data. Findings show that onset of refusal and duration of relationship were factors that influenced men's perceptions of victim and perpetrator accountability, as well as their likelihood of labeling what happened as rape. In addition, differences were found in perceptions of those who self-reported engaging in sexually aggressive behavior and men who did not self-report such behaviors. A discussion of the findings considers both token- resistance and male-entitlement explanations. 4 notes and 20 references