Effects of victim gender and physical vs. psychological trauma/injury on observers' perceptions of sexual assault and its aftereffects

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research,  June, 1994  by Lawrence J. Schneider,  Juliana Soh-Chiew Ee,  H. Aronson

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Rape is not just a sexual act. Rape victims often endure more than unwilling physical intimacy during their assault. Further harmful abuse can arise from th rapists' motive to experience satisfaction other than sexual fulfillment. For example, many stranger rapes include acts to heighten the rapists' sense of power through domination, through infliction of pain, and/or degradation of the victims. Yet public perception of rape appears to narrowly focus attention on the sexual aspects of the encounter. Victims often experience difficulty establishing credibility when harm is claimed. This is especially likely if evidence of injury beyond the sexual violation is not extensive such that it might verify active resistance to the assault. Compounding their losses, rape victims frequently encounter unsympathetic responses from others they would hav hoped might help or be concerned about their plight.

The tendency to blame rape victims has resulted in competing theories to explai those conclusions reached by fault-finding observers. Observers' motivational needs have been broached by the "just world" theory (Lerner & Miller, 1978) and the need to protect one's own sense of invulnerability (Shaver, 1970; Walster, 1966). Investigations focusing on victim's characteristics have shown observers to be less sympathetic to a rape victim based upon provocativeness of her dress or behavior (e.g., Best & Demmin, 1982; Kanekar & Kolsawalla, 1980; Schult & Schneider, 1991; Scroggs, 1976). Situational factors such as the number of sexual assaults reported in the vicinity have been related to assignment of blame to victims (Calhoun, Selby, & Waring, 1976). However, the vast majority o published studies focus on female victims and/or the sexual aspect of rape. In contrast, the present study has focused upon viewing frequently assessed perceptions under less commonly acknowledged circumstances: With a male as well as a female victim and with several nonsexual aspects of rape given stronger weight.

Howard (1984a,b) argued that event schemata or scripts grounded in assumptions about the expected behavioral sequences of social events operate as societal stereotypes influencing observers' reactions to victims. Howard speculated that sex and sexuality in terms of biological differences may be key components of stereotypes of women. Granting this, crimes involving sexuality are likely to contribute to gender-derived stereotypes--that is, sociocultural expectations associated with sex. When characteristics of specific cases approximate the consensual definition of the typical case, law enforcement and justice system personnel tend to think of them as "normal crimes" (Sudnow, 1965).

Howard (1984a,b) noted that the existing research on how victim characteristics influence observers' attributions in sexual assault cases is limited by the fac that the victims tend to be exclusively female. Little experimental data exist concerning male rape and the U.S. Justice Department claims male rape is too infrequent an event to report in its crime statistics (Burt & Katz, 1985; Howard, 1984a). Male rape may be associated with social contexts that are dominated by one gender, such as incarcerated or military populations (Danto, 1973; Goyer & Eddelman, 1984; Groth & Burgess, 1980). Estimates of the incidenc of male victimization among noninstitutionalized and nonmilitary male populations vary from 5% to 20% of all reported rapes and sexual assaults (Duncan, 1990; Forman, 1982; Groth & Burgess, 1980; Kaufman, Divasto, Jackson, Voorhess, & Christy, 1980; Struckman-Johnson & Struckman-Johnson, 1992). Kaufma et al. (1980) reported that male rape victims were significantly more likely to be beaten than were female victims. Relative to male sexual assault victims, female victims have been viewed as more likely to have encouraged the crime committed against them, considered more responsible for their victimization, an perceived as more careless (Lubomski, Anderson, Wienhold, & Orme, 1988; Travis Allgeier, 1986).

Observers' perceptions of the harm that could be sustained during sexual assaul have not been extensively investigated. Empathic or nonempathic receptivity to the reality of injuries should have ramifications for victims' experience of social support and anticipated progress in the recovery process. Katz and Mazur (1979) reported that prevalence estimates of physical injury (i.e., tissue damage) to rape victims range from 9% to 63% of adult victims. In their study o the actual event, Williams and Holmes (1981) found that 5% of their sample sustained severe, lasting injuries, 39% sustained minor injuries, and 23% suffered specific head or neck injuries, such as scratches or bruises. Scroggs (1976) found that observers responded differentially to rape victims when the assault resulted in pregnancy. Burt and Katz (1985) further observed that the extent of physical injury may be related to psychological recovery, especially when ongoing medical treatment is required. Expectations regarding the recovery process and maximum benefit anticipated from treatment also have implications for the allocation and management of physical as well as mental health services for victims.