Victim Blame, Sexism and Just-World Beliefs: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Victims of rape sometimes suffer from being blamed for their assault. This cross-cultural field experiment investigated victim blame with respect to victim–perpetrator relationship, benevolent sexism (BS), hostile sexism (HS) and belief in a just world (BJW). Participants were recruited in the United Kingdom (N = 75) and Sweden (N = 83). Participants read a vignette depicting either a date rape or a stranger rape and rated the level of victim blame. The victim of a date rape was blamed more than a victim of stranger rape and benevolent sexism was the only significant predictor of this blame. There were differences between British and Swedish informants in BS, HS and BJW, but not level of victim blame.