Models of Rape Judgment

Abstract

Extensive past research has shown many informational cues (regarding perpetrator, victim, or situational context) to influence attributional judgments of responsibility for rape and perceptions of whether or not an incident is rape. The current review discusses analytical models that have been developed to bring some order to the disorganized volume of cues and identify perceptions that may serve as cognitive mediators of rape judgments. Recent models have examined perceptions of the perpetrator's violent behavior and of the victim's desire for sexual intercourse as mediators of the effects of actual violence levels and victim's overt behavior upon rape judgments. Sex differences in the models suggest that female evaluators may be more likely to focus upon the behavior of the female victim when making judgments about a rape scenario.