An exploratory analysis of the relationship between women's rape fantasies, rape myth acceptance, rape victim empathy and rape blame attribution

摘要

This paper explores the existence of rape fantasies within a sample of female university students andinvestigates whether there is a relationship between rape fantasies and the way individuals make attributionsabout the victims of rape. Participants completed a questionnaire which included measures of erotic andaversive rape fantasies, rape myth acceptance, rape victim empathy and specific attributions about a victimof rape presented in a vignette. The findings indicate that rape fantasies are more common than previouslythought, with 53.4 per cent of participants reporting having experienced some form of sexually coercivefantasy at least once a year. The findings also indicate that there is positive correlational relationship betweengeneral rape fantasies and the way individuals make attributions about individual rape victims, with peoplewho experience rape fantasies allocating a greater amount of blame to the victim in a specific rape scenario.Potential reasons and implications for these findings are discussed