The Relationships of Observer Characteristics to Beliefs in the Causal Responsibility of Victims of Sexual Assault

Abstract

Whereas much of the previous research has focused on the influence of victim characteristics on attributions of responsibility to a rape victim, the present study sought to assess the relative effectiveness of individual differences among observers in predicting perceptions of a rape victim's responsibility in her own victimization. Specifically, observers' sex, their attitudes toward women, and their degree of dogmatism significantly contributed to the prediction of victim responsibility in a multiple regression analysis. Observers' locus of control orientation, personal-environmental attributional tendency, and belief in a just world, however, failed to be of predictive utility.