Whose fault is it anyway? Comparison of victim blaming attitudes towards sex trafficking and sexual assault across gender and two ethnic groups.

摘要

Victim blaming is a societal phenomenon that has received attention in the extensive literature available on rape. However, examining victim blaming in sex trafficking is nonexistent within the literature as the research on sex trafficking is limited overall. The purpose of this study was to build upon that literature by examining victim blaming perceptions in situations of rape and sex trafficking. This study focused on cultural aspects that contribute to the cognitive process of victim blaming, such as gender and ethnicity. Underlying cultural components were also analyzed, including social desirability and ethnic experience, for a comprehensive examination of how culture influences our understanding of sexual violence. As consistent with previous literature, men were significantly more likely to blame the victim than women and Hispanics participants endorsed significantly higher levels of victim blaming than White participants. As compared to Whites in the sample, Hispanics endorsed significantly higher levels of social desirability. Finally, significant differences emerged in regards to specific domains of ethnic experience.