Reactions to Stranger and Acquaintance Rape

Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate females' and males' reactions to a woman who presumably had been raped by a stranger or an acquaintance. Eighty undergraduates, 40 women and 40 men, read one of two rape descriptions prior to watching a videotape of the woman who (they were led to believe) had been the victim of the rape. Female and male subjects were found to have markedly different reactions to stranger and acquaintance rape and rape victims.