Judgments of Rape
- 1 March 1982
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Vol. 8 (1) , 134-139
- https://doi.org/10.1177/014616728281021
Abstract
In law, the social context of rape is irrelevant. Yet legal studies have suggested that judgments of rape are influenced by the victim's relationship to the rapist and the victim's sexual history. In the present study, respondents (N= 650) made judgments about a rape after reading one of several simulated newspaper accounts. Rape within either a dating or an intimate context was judged to be less serious than rape by a stranger. Rape was judged less serious when the victim's sexual history was described as either limited or extensive than when this information was not given. Female respondents judged the rape to be more serious than did males.Keywords
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