title: Judgments toward male and transgendered victims in a depicted stranger rape.
abstract: There has been an increasing amount of research interest into perceptions of male rape in recent years. However, no research has assessed how people react when a transgendered person is raped. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of transgendered status and sexuality on victim blame and perceived severity in a depicted rape scenario. The sexuality of the victim was manipulated to include a heterosexual, homosexual, cross-dresser, female-to-male transsexual, and male-to-female transsexual. It was predicted that the heterosexual victims would be judged the most positively and that heterosexual male participants would make the most anti-victim judgments. One hundred thirty-three lesbian, gay male, and heterosexual members of the general population read a scenario depicting a rape and then completed a questionnaire measuring victim blame and perceived severity of the assault. Results conformed to the predictions. Results are discussed in relation to traditional gender roles and homophobia.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom. MDavies3@uclan.ac.uk
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Jenefer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hudson
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D020010:Heterosexuality / Q000523:psychology; D006716:Homosexuality / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D011287:Prejudice; D011902:Rape / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D014189:Transsexualism