Male rape myths: examining the role of victim empathy and socio-demographics in a cross-sectional sample of UK adults
Whilst much is known about the psychosocial correlates of rape myth beliefs regarding female victims, much less research has investigated factors that underlie male rape myth beliefs. The aim of this study was therefore to examine the role of victim empathy and socio-demographics upon male rape myth beliefs. 303 UK adults aged 18 to 74 (M Age = 31.48) completed the Male Rape Myth Scale (MRMS) and the None-in-Three Victim Responsiveness Assessment (NI3: VRA), alongside assessing socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, education). Results reveal gender and ethnicity differences in affective victim-empathy sub-scales and overall male rape myth beliefs. Regression analyses determined that age, gender, ethnicity, and affective victim-empathy were significant predictors of male rape myth attitudes. The results have important implications for understanding those who are likely to believe falsehoods pertaining to male survivors of sexual victimisation and highlight the need for targeted educational intervention programmes among the UK public, including in their role as jurors.
History
School
- Social Sciences and Humanities
Department
- Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy
Published in
International Journal of Law, Crime and JusticeVolume
76Publisher
ElsevierVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© The AuthorsPublisher statement
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Elsevier under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC-ND). Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Acceptance date
2023-12-01Publication date
2023-12-09Copyright date
2023ISSN
1756-0616eISSN
1876-763XPublisher version
Language
- en