Two Sides of the Same Coin: The Relationship Between Modern Racism and Rape Blaming Attitudes among Swedish Students and Community Members.

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between modern racism and rape victim and perpetrator blame, and rape perception. Participants from both a community population (n = 211) and a student population (n = 200) read a rape vignette and provided their judgements of blame towards a victim and perpetrator, their perception of the event as rape, and later answered the modern racism scale. Results showed a significant positive relationship between modern racism and rape victim blame (r = .35, R2 × 100 = 12.1%), while modern racism had a significant negative relationship with perpetrator blame (r = -.27, R2 × 100 = 7.5%) and rape perception (r = -.29, R2 × 100 = 8.7%). Implications for the criminal justice system as well as suggestions for future research were discussed.

Rape Myth Consistency and Gender Differences in Perceiving Rape Victims: A Meta-Analysis.

An overview discusses feminist analyses of oppression, attitudes toward rape victims, and previously studied predictors of individuals' attitudes toward rape victims. To better understand such attitudes, this meta-analysis examines the moderating influences of various rape victim, perpetrator, and crime characteristics' rape myth consistency on gender differences in individuals' perceptions of rape victims (i.e., victim responsibility and blame attributions and rape minimizing attitudes). Consistent with feminist theoretical predictions, results indicated that, overall, men perceived rape victims more negatively than women did. However, this sex difference was moderated by the rape myth consistency within the rape vignettes. Implications for research are discussed.