Abstract:
College sexual assault is a common problem, and survivors often do not report their experience to college campus officials or law enforcement for fear of not being believed. This study examined how contextual factors such as alcohol use and whether the perpetrator was described as a student-athlete or student, and rater characteristics, such as the history of sexual assault and attitudes toward rape, influenced college students\' perceptions of the believability of a hypothetical victim\'s sexual assault account. In all, 449 (N = 449) undergraduates read a vignette describing a hypothetical sexual assault and were assigned randomly to one of four conditions with varying contextual features: college athlete-no alcohol, college athlete-alcohol, college student-no alcohol, or college student-alcohol. They then rated how much they believed the victim in the vignette had been raped (0 [not at all] to 100 [completely]). The presence of alcohol use in the vignette was associated with lower ratings of believability, and participants who were higher in rape myth acceptance and lower in rape empathy rated the hypothetical victim\'s rape account as less believable. In addition, women who had been raped previously rated the victim in the vignette as more believable than women with no history of sexual assault. Implications for how college campuses might respond more effectively to reported sexual assaults are discussed.
摘要:
大学性侵犯是一个常见的问题,和幸存者往往不报告他们的经验,大学校园官员或执法部门,因为害怕不相信。这项研究调查了诸如饮酒等背景因素以及犯罪者是否被描述为学生运动员或学生,和评分者特征,比如性侵犯的历史和对强奸的态度,影响了大学生对假想受害者性侵犯账户可信度的看法。总之,449(N=449)本科生阅读了一个描述假设的性侵犯的小插图,并被随机分配到具有不同背景特征的四个条件之一:大学运动员-不饮酒,大学运动员酒精,大学生——不喝酒,或者大学生酒精。然后,他们对小插图中的受害者被强奸的程度进行了评估(0[根本没有]到100[完全])。小插图中酒精的使用与较低的可信度相关,而强奸神话接受度较高,强奸同理心较低的参与者则认为假设受害者的强奸账户不太可信。此外,先前被强奸的女性认为小插图中的受害者比没有性侵犯史的女性更可信。讨论了大学校园如何更有效地应对报告的性侵犯的含义。