Society does not view rape seriously. Few rape crimes are successfully prosecuted. Rape results in permanent alteration of the victim's life. Besides street rape there is no consensus on the definition of rape. This study attempts to gather people's perceptions of rape. Subjects (N=96) were approached randomly and accepted if they fit into desired…

Experimental research on social perceptions of rape victims has been conducted within the framework of two different models. The first, a naive observer model, is oriented toward how the average person perceives a rape victim and how her character and aspects of her behavior affect these perceptions. The second, a jury process model, is directed…

Degree of belief in rape myths as determined by participant gender, attitudes about the role of women in contemporary society, and factual knowledge of rape was investigated in a sample of 118 male and 126 female college students. The results support the general assumption that a rape ideology exists which involves components of belief in rape…

The physical and interpersonal contexts within which rapes occur were investigated. The physical context, defined in terms of observers' perceptions of the likelihood of rapes occurring in a particular setting, produce variations in the degree of responsibility assigned to the victim. Women raped in high probability of rape settings were held as…

Acknowledged rape victims are women who have experienced forced sexual intercourse and view their experience as rape. Unacknowledged rape victims have suffered the same experience but do not view it as rape. Acknowledged (N=39) and unacknowledged (N=29) rape victims completed a sexual experiences interview and a rape attitude survey to determine…

Few counseling services are available to or utilized by rape victims, which implies that many women turn, instead, to their social networks for support. Research literature suggests that anxiety is reduced and coping skills are enhanced when a victim uses her interpersonal social network for support. Unfortunately, many women have the same…