RT Article
T1 Knowing a Rape Victim, Personal Sexual Victimization Experience, and Gender Predicting Rape Victim Empathy
JF Victims & offenders
VO 18
IS 2
SP 264
OP 278
A1 Osman, Suzanne L.
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1833774809
AB Empathy with a rape victim was examined based on knowing a rape victim (not oneself), personal sexual victimization experience, and participant gender. Undergraduates (n = 531) at a midsize public university in the Northeast United States completed the Rape-Victim Empathy Scale, the Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Victimization, and questions regarding knowing a rape victim. Empathy scores were greater for those who reported knowing a rape victim than for those who did not. Women with personal sexual victimization experience reported greater empathy than men with personal sexual victimization experience and all nonvictims, but no differences emerged among female nonvictims and all men. Findings suggest that knowing a rape victim may provide some degree of vicarious experience with rape that helps individuals better understand a rape victim’s perspective, and factors influencing rape empathy among men and nonvictims needs more attention in future research.
K1 Gender
K1 Victimization
K1 know
K1 Empathy
K1 Rape
DO 10.1080/15564886.2021.1991068