PERCEPTION OF RAPE

GENDER ROLE IN ATTITUDE TOWARDS FEMALE RAPE VICTIM AND MALE

PERPETRATOR
MOUNIKA MALLU
GARIMA PANWAR

LADY SHRI RAM COLLEGE FOR WOMEN

INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the present study is to find the differences between the male and female
attitudes towards the female victims and the male perpetrators. Generally, female
observers of sexual scenarios are more critical than male observers (Dollar et al. 2004;
Quas et al. 2002). In a study of both heterosexual and homosexual sexual
assaults,
male respondents were more likely to blame the depicted victims than
were female respondents (White and Kurpius 2002). On the whole,
female respondents are more sympathetic to victims than are male
respondents (Broussard et al. 1991;McCauley and Parker 2001), who
tend to blame rape victims (White and Kurpius 2002). Research
suggests that respondent characteristics impact individuals
perceptions of criminal sexual behavior. In particular, the gender of the
individual observing and rating the crime affects perceptions of guilt
and deserved punishment, such that female respondents are more
critical than male respondents (Dollar et al. 2004; Quas et al. 2002).
Generally, compared
to male undergraduates, female undergraduates are more supportive
of victims, more likely to blame the defendant, and more likely to
produce a guilty verdict (McCauley and Parker 2001).
HYPOTHESES:
1) We expected that female respondents would condemn the male
perpetrator more as compared to the male respondents.
2) The male respondents are expected to blame the female victims
more than the female respondents.
METHOD:
In order to address these hypotheses we employed email questionnaire
that was administered to 15 females and males each of age group 1825 yrs. We have taken the mean of the scores of the five different
cases to avoid the situational bias.
QUESTIONNAIRE:
The questionnaire has been designed based on the Young adults
perception of non-forcible sexual activity by Sarah Koon Magnin;
R.Barry Ruback. In this research we have taken five newspaper reports
on different rape cases in which the victim was female and the
perpetrator was male.

Thus, all versions depicted one scenario where there the victim is
female and the perpetrator. Importantly, the terms victim and
perpetrator were not used in the questionnaire because of the bias
that would be introduced by these terms . Rather, respondents were
simply asked to rate one scenario depicting the X-year old female
and the Y-year old male. This paper focuses solely on the effects of
the manipulation of Rape scenarios to randomize the events and
reduce the situational bias had one scenario been reported. For this,
five different newspaper reports have been given to the respondents
and they received a questionnaire where they rated the female victim
and the male perpetrator on five dimensions: harm, blameworthiness,
badness, deserved punishment, and likelihood of committing crime in
the future. Each of these ratings was based on a 7-point unipolar scale
ranging from Not at All (1) to Extremely (7). Under this coding
system, higher scores represented more negative evaluations. We did
not reverse code any items on the questionnaire.
SAMPLE
Instructions
We are carrying out a survey to understand peoples reaction to newspaper reports of rape
crimes. Please read the recent news report and answer the questions that follow by
circling the number that best fits your opinion. There are no right or wrong answers. We
are only interested in your honest opinion. Remember this survey is anonymous and your
answers will only be used for research purposes. This is not timed so please answer at
your own pace and return the form to the researcher when finished. Thank you.
Personal Information
Name:________________________________________________
Gender:_______________________________________________
Age:__________________________________________________
Educational qualification:__________________________________
Recent newsreport on rape cases
1.KARNAL:Vimala Devi, a 50-year-old woman was gangraped by four unidentified
persons in a village in
Karnal district when she was returning from field at 6.00p.m. on 17th
october,2012.
The victim in her complaint alleged that she was raped by two persons
in a farm in Danerki village yesterday. Later on, two more persons
joined them and took turns to rape her, police sources said today.
A.Do you think that vimala is

1
Not at all
harmed by
this activity
1
Not at all bad

1
Not at all
blameworthy
1
Not at all
deserving of
punishment
1
Not at all
likely to
commit crime
in future

6
5

4
2

B.Do you think that the men in the case is..

1
2
3
Not at all
harmed by
this activity
1
2
3
Not at all bad
1
Not at all
blameworthy
1
Not at all
deserving of
punishment
1
Not at all
likely to
commit crime
in future

4
4
4

6
5

7
Extremely
harmed by this
activity
7
Extremely
bad
7
Extremely
blameworthy
7
Extremely
deserving of
punishment
7
Extremely
likely to commit
crime in future

7
Extremely
harmed by this
activity
7
Extremely
bad
7
Extremely
blameworthy
7
Extremely
deserving of
punishment
7
Extremely
likely to commit
crime in future

2.NEW DELHI:The Yamuna Nagar police have arrested a 40-year-old man for allegedly
raping a minor girl.

The accused, identified as Gurnam Singh who was known to the victim
allegedly offered, Preeti, a lift in his car when she was on her way
to visit her sister on Tuesday. "He told me he would drop me, but then
he took me through some forest and made me sleep and then raped me,"
explains the victim.
A.Do you think that Preeti is
1
2
3
Not at all
harmed by
this activity
1
2
3
Not at all bad
1
Not at all
blameworthy
1
Not at all
deserving of
punishment
1
Not at all
likely to
commit crime
in future

6
5

B.Do you think that Gurnam in the case is..

1
2
3
Not at all
harmed by
this activity
1
2
3
Not at all bad
1
Not at all
blameworthy
1
Not at all
deserving of
punishment
1
Not at all
likely to
commit crime
in future

4
4
4

6
5

3.FARIDABAD:A domestic help, was criminally assaulted in

7
Extremely
harmed by this
activity
7
Extremely
bad
7
Extremely
blameworthy
7
Extremely
deserving of
punishment
7
Extremely
likely to commit
crime in future

7
Extremely
harmed by this
activity
7
Extremely
bad
7
Extremely
blameworthy
7
Extremely
deserving of
punishment
7
Extremely
likely to commit
crime in future

the state's Faridabad district.

The 20-year-old victim,Meena alleged that she was raped by her master at his
Sector 21(A) residence on Monday night when she was about to leave
after wrapping up household works, police said.
A.Do you think that Meena is
1
2
3
Not at all
harmed by
this activity
1
2
3
Not at all bad
1
Not at all
blameworthy
1
Not at all
deserving of
punishment
1
Not at all
likely to
commit crime
in future

6
5

B.Do you think that the man in the case is..

1
2
3
Not at all
harmed by
this activity
1
2
3
Not at all bad
1
Not at all
blameworthy
1
Not at all
deserving of
punishment
1
Not at all
likely to
commit crime
in future

4
4
4

6
5

7
Extremely
harmed by this
activity
7
Extremely
bad
7
Extremely
blameworthy
7
Extremely
deserving of
punishment
7
Extremely
likely to commit
crime in future

7
Extremely
harmed by this
activity
7
Extremely
bad
7
Extremely
blameworthy
7
Extremely
deserving of
punishment
7
Extremely
likely to commit
crime in future

4.BANGALORE: In yet another shocking act of depraved violence against

women, a 21-year-old south Asian student of the country's premier
National Law School of India University was allegedly gang-raped by a
group of seven to eight drunk men in the adjoining Jnanabharathi
campus of Bangalore University late on Saturday night when she was
out with a male friend in his car in a forested area.
A.Do you think that the woman is
1
2
3
4
Not at all
harmed by
this activity
1
2
3
4
Not at all bad
1
Not at all
blameworthy
1
Not at all
deserving of
punishment
1
Not at all
likely to
commit crime
in future

6
5

7
Extremely
harmed by this
activity
7
Extremely
bad
7
Extremely
blameworthy
7
Extremely
deserving of
punishment
7
Extremely
likely to commit
crime in future

B.Do you think that the men in the case is..

1
Not at all
harmed by
this activity
1
Not at all bad

1
Not at all
blameworthy
1
Not at all
deserving of
punishment
1
Not at all
likely to
commit crime
in future

6
5

7
Extremely
harmed by this
activity
7
Extremely
bad
7
Extremely
blameworthy
7
Extremely
deserving of
punishment
7
Extremely
likely to commit
crime in future

5.CHENNAI: A 27-year-old man was arrested for alleged sexual

assault on his female colleague,Shruti, after reportedly spiking her drink
with date rape drug.
According to reports, the victim accompanied the accused to his
friends house where she was offered a drink, supposedly spiked with
date rape drug. On waking up, she realised that she had been violated
and reported the matter to the police
A.Do you think that Shruti is
1
2
3
Not at all
harmed by
this activity
1
2
3
Not at all bad
1
Not at all
blameworthy
1
Not at all
deserving of
punishment
1
Not at all
likely to
commit crime
in future

6
5

7
Extremely
harmed by this
activity
7
Extremely
bad
7
Extremely
blameworthy
7
Extremely
deserving of
punishment
7
Extremely
likely to commit
crime in future

B.Do you think that the man in the case is..

1
Not at all
harmed by
this activity
1
Not at all bad

1
Not at all
blameworthy
1
Not at all
deserving of
punishment
1
Not at all

6
5

7
Extremely
harmed by this
activity
7
Extremely
bad
7
Extremely
blameworthy
7
Extremely
deserving of
punishment
7
Extremely

likely to
commit crime
in future

likely to commit
crime in future

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:

We have Within-subjects design which has the created factors of
Victim Condemnation and Perpetrator Condemnation. Analysis of
variance provides comparisons of the multiple ratings provided by
individual respondents and makes it possible to look at the amount of
difference between individuals in their ratings of the actors (based on
respondent gender, depicted victim gender), as well as within
individuals in their ratings of the two actors: victim and perpetrator
(Agresti andFinlay 1997). In this research, the between-subjects
effects,reported first, were used to measure the differences in
responses based upon different conditions of the
The within subjects effects, reported second, were conducted on the
two created factors, Victim Condemnation and Perpetrator
Condemnation. Because each respondent rated both the victim and
the perpetrator in the depicted scenarios, using the same 5Indicator scale for each, these two factors were treated as repeated
measures. Thus, we employed repeated measures to test whether,
overall, there were differences between Victim Condemnation and
Perpetrator Condemnation provided by the respondents and whether
these factors interacted with the between-subjects variables.
Between-Subjects
The mean of the scores of the female and male respondents in all the
cases has been calculated in order to compare the female and male
condemnation of the female victim and male perpetrator separately
based on the questions.
The table showing the mean score of the male respondents
and female respondents of the female victim
Measures
Female R
Male R
Score(X)
Score(Y)

Harmed
Bad
Blameworthy
Punishable
Future Crime

6.57
1.75
2.36
1.39
1.96

6.07
2.53
2.4
1.74
2.51

The table showing the mean score of the male respondents

and female respondents of the male perpetrator
Measures
Female R
Male R
Score(X)
Score(Y)
Harmed
1.56
2.43
Bad
6.49
5.87
Blameworthy
6.36
6.08
Punishable
6.77
6.30
Future Crime
5.44
5.39

We have employed a method to measure the difference between the

means of the scores in each measure by calculating the percentage.
Suppose if the mean scores of female and male respondents are X and
Y.
The percentage of difference is calculated using (X-Y) or (Y-X)/7*100
The Table showing difference between the scores of the female
respondents and male respondents of the female victim and
the percentage of their difference
Measures
X-Y
%
Harmed
+0.5
7
Bad
-0.78
11.1
Blameworthy
-0.04
0.57
Punishable
-0.35
5
Future Crime
-0.55
7.8
*+ sign indicates that the female respondents have rated the measure
in the question more than the male respondents and vice-versa.

The Table showing difference between the scores of the female

respondents and male respondents of the male perpetrator
and the percentage of their difference.
Measures
X-Y
%
Harmed
-0.87
12

Bad
+0.72
10
Blameworthy
+0.28
4
Punishable
+0.47
6.7
Future Crime
+0.05
0.7
*+ sign indicates that the female respondents have rated the measure
in the question more than the male respondents and vice-versa.
From the tables above, it can be inferred that the first hypothesis
that female respondents would condemn the male perpetrator more as
compared to the male respondents as expected from (X-Y) value which
is positive (+0.28) indicating that females find the male perpetrators
to be more blameworthy when compared to the male respondents.
The second hypothesis that male respondents are expected to blame
the female victims more than the female respondents is also accepted
from the negative (-0.04) value of (X-Y) indicating that male
respondents rated to be more blameworthy in comparison to the
female respondents.
When the scores given by females and males to all the questions are
considered individually, it is clear that the females think that the
female victims are harmed 7% more than the males and that the males
think that the male perpetrator is harmed by the activity 12% more
than the females.
Interestingly, females think that female victims are 11.1% bad as
compared to the males.
Females think that the male perpetrators are 10% bad as compared to
the males. So basically, women have rated the victim and perpetrator
bad as compared to the males.
Males think that the victim is to be 5% more punishable as compared
to the females. Females have rated the perpetrator to be 6.7% more
punishable than males respondents have rated them. So, clearly
females condemn the perpetrator as compared to the males and think
that he should be punished.
Males think the female victims are 7.8% more likely to commit crime in
the future as compared to the females. Females think that the male
perpetrators are 0.7% more likely to commit crime in the future as
compared to the males.
From all these questions it is clearly evident that the female
respondents are more critical of the perpetrator than the male
respondents. This can be inferred from the scores in the
blameworthiness attributed to the victim and the perpetrator in
different cases.
Across the cases it has been found the victim is blamed more in the
acquaintance rape and when she is perceived to have some contact
with the perpetrator and when she was out in odd timings.
EXPLANATION

This could possibly explained by the fact that female respondents

might have sympathized with the victims by identifying with the
gender and male respondents with the perpetrator.
These findings are in line with the findings that the female observers of sexual scenarios
are more critical than male observers (Dollar et al. 2004; Quas et al. 2002). In a study
of both heterosexual and homosexual sexual assaults, male
respondents were more likely to blame the depicted victims than were
female respondents (White and Kurpius 2002). On the whole, female
respondents are more sympathetic to victims than are male
respondents (Broussard et al. 1991;McCauley and Parker 2001), who
tend to blame rape victims (White and Kurpius 2002).

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