Perceived Victim Blame and Risk in College Students’ Perceptions of Rape Myths in Varying Sexual Assault Scenarios

Do the circumstances of sexual assault situations shape how individuals view a victims’ blameworthiness and risk? To examine this, data were collected on college students' perceptions of a victims’ blameworthiness and a victims’ perceived amount of risk specifically looking at how these views differ across scenarios portraying varying rape myths. College students (n=395) from Arizona State University were recruited via professors to participate in the survey. In the analysis, chi-square tests were run and zero-inflated ordered probit logistic regressions (ZIOP) with clustered standard errors predicting risk and blame perceptions across scenarios were conducted. The results show that the college students’ perceptions of risk and victim blameworthiness did vary across the rape myths that were shown within the scenarios. The chi-square tests demonstrated that for all three of the risk and blame questions, respondents’ answers on the outcome were dependent on the scenario. The ZIOP demonstrated that overall, the respondents were unwilling to assign risk and blame to the victims in the scenarios, however, when they assigned risk and blame answers varied across the different scenarios. This indicates that the rape myths portrayed in each scenario changed how individuals rated a victim’s perceived blameworthiness and risk. This has implications for the continuation of exposure to sexual assault awareness training and courses.