Introduction
Rape constitutes the act of having sexual intercourse, against a person’s will. Majority of the experts in this field suggest that rape is as a result of an aggressive lust to dominate the victim, as opposed to the desire to achieve sexual fulfillment. They format rape to be an act of violence, rather than primarily a sexual encounter (Catty 1999).
This paper will focus on identifying whether men are more sympathetic to rapists and incidences of rape more than women.
Rape
The description of rape varies in different states or countries. However in almost every state, if a man through the use of force subjects a woman who is not his wife to have sex with her without her consent or rather against her will, he is said to have committed the act of rape. Moreover, the states are deviating from this definition to encompass non-consensual incidences of intercourse, whether there was employment of force or not. Spousal rape is included in this definition.
In other states, rape revolves on the narrow definition of forcible sexual intercourse, with other statutes addressing other forms of sexual assault encompassing non-consensual sexual intercourse as well as undesired sexual acts other than intercourse. Some countries have legal redress for raped women (Catty 1999).
Nevertheless, some countries rely on sexual taboos (social prohibition to protect women as opposed to criminal law). For instance, soldiers are prohibited from acts of rape during times of war or internal conflicts by their national military codes as well as international treaties such as the Geneva Convention of 1949. Nonetheless, sometimes military rape is encouraged as a pay off to soldiers or as part of a campaign of terror (Catty 1999). As of present any form of sexual violence against women is vigorously detested by human rights activists.
Legal history of rape
Laws describing and laying punishments for rape have differed greatly among competing cultures, social, as well as political attributes about sex and gender (Catty 1999).
Pre Medieval societies
In some early societies, men got their wives by use of bride capture in which case a man would kidnap a woman and force her to have sex, and consequently would marry her. In some societies bride capturing was seen as heroic deed and sometimes celebrated. Thus, what would amount to rape in modern society was socially accepted at that time.
In other societies rape was considered punishable offence. More often than not, these societies punished both the rapist as well as the victim of rape. Consider the Babylonian code of Hammurabi that assumed the raped woman to have committed adultery. The two were supposed to be thrown into a river after being bound together. Similarly, under the Hebrew law, the woman raped was supposed to be stoned to death. Still on ancient laws on rape, some societies treated rape as an offence against the property owner (husband or father) hence affording atonement for either, as well as marrying her if she was a virgin (Catty 1999).
English common law
Common law was developed in England during the 12th and 13th Century. It was more defined and embedded on judicial decisions. Under Common Law, rape was criminalized and punishment prescribed. Under this law, rape was described as, “Sexual penetration of a woman forcibly and against her will”. Spousal rape was impossible under this law due to the wedding contract (Baines 2003) (Catty 1999).
On top of offering immunity to husbands, these laws, as well as procedural requirements made the prosecution of rape difficult. It was incumbent upon the victim of rape to exhibit that though she attempted to fight off the rape, she was overpowered. Early complaint as well as physical bruise was a pre-requisite under the fresh complaint rule to avoid fabricated complaints.
The utmost resistance doctrine and the fresh complaint rule were attributions which portrayed the status of women in society. These doctrines were specifically tailored to shield men from fake accusation of rape, pointing that the English society valued preventing false accusations rather than guarding women from actual rapes. The underlying assumption was that women were likely to fabricate rape accusations either due to the feeling of shame or as a form of revenge upon rejection by lover.
Under the English common law, rules of evidence were to the advantage of men as they governed the information that was available to the jury as well as the weight the jury should employ in dealing with the information (Baines 2003). It was an ordeal for a victim of rape during trials as she could be cross-examined to show consent on her part on the material day or other day, or that she consented to sexual intercourse with another man or men or else she did not have good character for chastity. Even though it was difficult to sustain conviction, when successful the punishment was severe. During most of the echelons, the English law treated rape as capital offence (Baines 2003).
In United States
Most of criminal law in United States was modeled on English Common Law, rape included. To guard against false accusations, a corroboration rule was added to the requirements. Corroboration was / is in the form of physical (semen or bruises) evidence or testimony of a witness (Wood 1998). As was the case of English Law, the basic aim of this requirement was to shield men from false accusations rather than to protect women. Based on the English Model, US also had / has capital punishment for rapists. However, the practice was held unconstitutional via Supreme Court ruling in 1977. State statures prescribe several years imprisonment, including life imprisonment. However with increased rape incidences, some states have adopted the death penalty for 2nd conviction of rape (Wood 1998).
Rape in Islamic countries
In Pakistan the law governing rape provides for Islamic standards of proof as well as punishment for the crime. The law dealing with rape is part of the offence called the offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood). This ordinance (VII of 1970) also encompasses adultery and fornication. The acts of adultery and fornication save for the fact that they are regarded as immoral are not punishable under western law. This further complicates the already complex issues of rape in Islamic countries (Quraishi 1997).
Zina ordinance does not offer any protection for girls aged less than 14 years. Islamic law prescribes (in Pakistan) punishment in the form of whipping and stoning to death as opposed to earlier prescription of 10 years imprisonment and fine. Under the Zina law, it is upon the court to be satisfied that the witnesses are truthful and abstain from major sins. In addition, under the Zina law, only male witnesses are allowed to testify (Quraishi 1997).
Pakistan is a male dominated society thus more power is given to men over women bodies despite severe punishment. The Islamic government of Pakistan holds the new law to be in parity with the Quran and Sunnah. It is important to note that the traditional Islamic concept of rape is a remote idea in present day Pakistan (Quraishi 1997).
In Pakistan, rape is said to occur in a situation whereby the rapist does not know his victim before hand and a woman is suddenly attacked. Where the rapist knows his victim beforehand it is as landlord-peasant relationships or boss-employee relationships. Girls are not spared either as the law does not offer them protection. The question of consent is immaterial. However, in Pakistan there is segregation of sexes, that is, seclusion of women (Quraishi 1997).
What can be summed up from Pakistan is that the government employed Islam to obtain legitimacy thus denying women their rights. The Islamization process has afforded males with staunch notions of dominance in the society. This has greatly affected men’s attitude towards women in that men enforce government orders directed to women, for instance the wearing of chader (cover of head), a man can slap a woman for failing to cover her head (Quraishi 1997).
According to the Muslim countries the law of rape is made complicated by inclusion of consensual sexual intercourse without valid marriage (fornication, adultery). Under this law, spousal rape is excluded whether there is consent or not. As earlier said the traditional Islamic law of rape makes rapists liable to “Hadd and Tazir punishments”. Hadd punishment includes whipping, amputation of limbs as well as stoning to death while Tazir punishment is through whipping, imprisonment and fines (Quraishi 1997).
Under Hadd punishment, confession of the perpetrator or the witness of four adult Muslim males is important. The law on rape as it stand is hard to prove as no woman would dare bring an action under rape due to fear of the matter being reversed and she be convicted on charges of adultery or fornication upon failing to prove rape charges. Fornication and adultery attracts a maximum of ten years imprisonment, thirty lashes as well as a fine (Quraishi 1997).
Consider the case of Sofia Bibi vs. the State, where a woman was saved from being sent in by the way the case gained publicity. The accused could not be convicted on account of the woman’s confession since there was no evidence from 4 adult male Muslims. In the same country a 13 year old girl was sent in for failing to prove rape. However, her conceiving was held to be an indicator of fornication, hence she served 3 years on top of 30 lashes under Tazir punishment (Quraishi 1997).
The law of rape in any society defines the attitude accorded to women. In Pakistan, a male dominated society where great emphasis is based on a woman’s modesty and chastity, a woman is more often than not more liable to blame through portraying herself to be vulnerable to the rapist or by way of advancing an element of stimulation to the rapist. Resistance to rape is an important element of consideration while dealing with rape cases in the country (Quraishi 1997). In Bahadir Shar’s case Vs the State, conviction of rape was reversed to fornication/adultery since the examining doctor did not see any bruises on the thighs, legs, elbows, arms, knees, face, back and buttocks of the victim and it was asserted she was supposed to sustain the same as she resisted to be raped (Quraishi 1997).
In conclusion, rape cases in Pakistan are hard to prove. Moreover, the evidence of male Muslim is weightier than that of the victim. The possibility of being implicated with fornication/adultery is risky for women. This is a clear reflection of the social attitude towards women (Quraishi 1997).
Current trend
As women acquired immense legal protections based on civil rights laws and gained increased political equality, medieval rape laws came under attack. Women’s movements questioned many of the assumptions under which rape laws were based. They pointed out for instance, that rape laws were more concerned with protecting men from false accusations. The laws were seen by the activists to do more harm to women than protect them (Miller 1996).
Doctrines such the utmost resistances were questioned as research indicated that serious physical injury was meted on those women who attempted to resist rapists. Discovery of rape trauma syndrome pinned down the fresh complaint rule. Special corroboration rule was not spared either as reformists pointed out that the typical reaction of a rape victim was to shower, change and do away with torn clothing as well as to hide bruises, consequently destroying the physical evidence required under corroboration rule (Miller 1996).
Legal reforms
1970’s saw changes in laws regarding to rape. Common Law doctrines as well as their biases against victims were eliminated. Massachusetts and Tennessee were the first to end the corroboration requirement rule in 1968 and 1971 respectively.
Some states have passed laws allowing males to press for charges of sexual assault. Another important development was the enactment of rape shield laws (Wood S, 1998). These laws have the effect of limiting the ways in which a rape complainant can be questioned as far as her sexual conduct is concerned. This marked a U-turn, as the rights of the victim rather than those of the accused were emphasized. However, these laws are criticized on the basis that they can lead to convictions of an innocent person (Wood S, 1998).
Types of rape
With variance in attitudes towards sexuality and gender equality, law makers as well as legal reformers strive to redescribe what behaviours form rape. Some advocates are of the view that rape should be construed as non-consensual sexual intercourse without one being obliged to prove use of force. This has led to a lot of controversies.
Forcible rape
This is sexual intercourse performed against a person’s will through the use of threat or physical force. As we have seen, a person could only be charged where shown force was used to subdue the victim. This requirement has undergone modification in some states. For instance, a New Jersey court in 1992 held that the requirement of force was complimented by the act of sexual penetration itself, the absence of force notwithstanding (Barbara 1973) (Wood 1998).
Aggravated sexual assault is severely punished under Canadian laws. Aggravated sexual assault arises when, while sexually assaulting the victim an offender wounds, mains, disfigures or endangers the life of the victim. Even though Canadian statutes do not explicitly define sexual assault, they (statutes) define consent as “voluntary agreement of the complaint to engage in the sexual activity in question” (Wood 1998). With variance in attitudes towards sexuality and gender equality, law makers as well as legal reformers strive to redescribe what behaviours form rape. Some advocates are of the view that rape should be construed as non-consensual sexual intercourse without one being obliged to prove use of force (Wood 1998). This has led to a lot of controversies.
Acquaintance rape
This type of rape is also known as the date rape and it occurs when a person rapes a person he or she knows. This is the most common rape found between two people who may be friends, former lovers or presently dating (Barbara 1973).
Acquaintance rapes, as per researches are more common as opposed to rape by strangers or relatives. The issue of consent is controversial in acquaintance rape as both the victim and the rapist may have opposing perspectives of what transpired. The danger of defining consent from victim’s point of view is that it can orchestrate the risk of punishing a person who might have mistakenly thought that the other person was consenting to sexual relations. Men should go slowly to avoid being held culprits of such incidences (Barbara 1973).
Marital rape
Also referred to as spousal rape, connotes rape of one’s spouse. Rape within marriage was not recognized under English Common Law, traditional US as well as Canadian law (Wood 1998). There was a move in US by American Law Institute not to invade marital privacy by retaining legal historical rule that a man could not rape his wife (1960s). However, due to changing attitudes brought about by domestic violence, the doctrine was abandoned with marital rape prosecutions being admitted especially where force is employed.
Statutory rape
This is having sexual intercourse with a person who has not attained consent age. This age varies from state to state. However, it is not more than 18 years in any state. Sexual intercourse with person construed as incapable of consenting is rape, if performed on a person who is drugged or asleep or one who is mentally retarded.
Traditional statutory rape laws have undergone replacement in some countries such as in Canada where touching the body of a person under 14 years is construed as offense of sexual interference under criminal code. Consent or mistaken identity of age is no defense.
Rape of men
Ancient rape laws were formulated on the ideology that only women could be raped hence they were gender specific (Miller 1996). Present trend towards rape is that of gender neutrality, with men and women being either victims or perpetrators (Groth & Burgess 1980). Where a state’s general rape statute is not explicit, other statutes banning anal or oral sex cure the situation.
Men’s attitude towards rape and rapists
It is habitually claimed that men do not recognize the full dismay of the incident of being raped and that judges are time and again compassionate, even sympathetic with rapists. Ironically, this state of affairs is aggravated by the feminists’ argument that female sexuality is similar to that of males (Baines 2003). Any man, who actually believed that, would be unsympathetic towards a woman who had been raped since the odds are that he would consider the idea of being raped by women to be a positive fancy.
Consider the case whereby a young Mormon man was forced to have sexual activity with his attractive ex-girlfriend who had trailed him from US to Britain (Baines 2003). When he lodged complaint, the media as well as the courts reaction was not ideally horror but amusement. Men in the streets were found to assume and take the attitude that he was lucky. It is socially acknowledged that female to male rape is rare due to the fact that men are seldom unwilling to take part in sex whether with known partners or strangers (Baines 2003).
There is generally accepted theory that rape is not based on sex but a motive of hatred of women and the aspiration to dominate and rule them (Barbara 1973). The theory becomes problematic especially when one is faced with questions such as why rapists choose poor, young women as their victims as opposed to powerful, older women or why they originate from specific age and social groups (Baines 2003).
It is not correct to presume that rape is a sign of personal or social pathology. Rape happens virtually in every society, modern and primordial. In addition to non-human primates, for instance Orang Otangs and most rapists are not psychotic or otherwise mentally disordered.
Men’s inclination to pornography
Social researches carried in US and Canada indicate the pornography desensitizes men, makes them detest their sexual partners, thus inclines to believe that women are less deserving of equality (Wood 1998). The studies show that men who use pornography are more likely to become less sympathetic to rape victims, more sympathetic to rapists as well as exhibiting likelihood of committing rape.
A researcher in this field, Edward Donnerstein, affirmed that the “relationship between sexually violent images in the media and subsequent aggression and callous attitudes towards women is much stronger statistically than their relationship between smoking and cancer” (Susan Griffin 1993).
The research done in Canada showed that nearly one-third of the rapists and half of child abusers used pornography in furtherance of their goals. Pornography maintains crooked belief system that allows them to rationalize and justify their behaviour.
Rape is a major problem in the present day society. Both genders are victims of rape, however the female gender constitute the majority of rape victims. Researchers have been studying the issue of rape in relation to causes so as to understand the social concern. Knowing attitudes towards rape victims assist in uncovering why rape remains such a problem. One major factor seems to be clandestine attitudes towards victims in addition to enabling a rapist to justify his or her actions.
Russell has offered evidence, that viewing pornography that portrays actual or virtual rape and/or other sexual violence reduces the inhibitions beside rape in males. while the study is not wide enough to confirm whether there is express connection between these lowered inhibitions and actual rapes committed, it does exhibit that men exposed to violent pornography are less sympathetic to rape victims and more sympathetic towards rapists.
In addition, the study makes out that males exposed to violent pornography are more likely to subscribe to rape myths, for instance, myths that propose that women enjoy rape, and those that advocate it is okay to rape a woman when portrayed to have played a role in the sexual arousal of a male.
Furthermore, Russell also emphasizes study that proposes even non-violent pornography, which on the other hand describes women as items for male sexual contentment, decreases men’s possibility to perceive women as human beings, underestimating as well as sexualising their actions.
More widely, feminist condemnation of the depiction of women in ordinary, non-violent pornography is apt to center on the objectification of women in this matter. Despite the fact that the term “objectification” can be extremely prejudiced, numerous features of mainstream non-violent pornography characterize objectification. Pornography tends to show impractical female body categories, whereas body-types and sexualities that stray from this impractical “norm” are fetishised. Pornography showing lesbian encounters, predominantly, proposes that all female sexuality only gains acceptance from its subjection to the heterosexual male stare. Female orgasm, when it is significant at all, is construed as a function only of male sexual enjoyment.
Rape myths
Rape myths are untrue beliefs concerning rape that are extensively held, and are employed to rationalize male sexual aggression against women. Rape myths are also construed as “Prejudicial, stereotyped or false beliefs about rape, rape victims and rapist”. Some examples of rape myths include that women secretly long to be raped or that they deceive about being raped.
Rape myths perform numerous functions. Take for instance the rape myth that only certain categories of women get raped such as easy women (loose) or reputable sexually promiscuous women. This belief, if held by women makes it difficult to understand the real risks and facilitates denial of personal vulnerability. Women, who have this belief, feel that if they do not sleep around or go to certain places, it is hard for them to get raped refusing vulnerability.
Nevertheless, where the myth transfers blame from rapist to victim, it hands out to play down a serious crime that affects a crucial number of women in our community. Other myths function to justify oppression and control of women, for instance the myth that a woman cannot be raped by her husband. This myth denies women independence and permits husbands to manipulate their wives without community interferences. Just world is another type of rape myth. It is held under the tenets that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. Those who have this belief look for evidence to blame the victim for his or her bad luck (Burt 1980).
Rape myths also function to articulate why sufferers deserve their fate. Myth acceptance depends on cluster of attitudinal variables that encompass adversarial sexual beliefs for instance, women provoke rape (Burt 1980), women give two way messages, traditional gender roles attitude such as men should be aggressive and women should be submissive, men should be the initiators of dates as well as the acceptance of interpersonal violence (Burt 1980).
Researches show that women are less of majority of the rape myths, while they portray the view that rape is a victim’s fault in a negative way. It is pointed out from these researches that men respond negatively to rape victims than women do. Men who accept rape myths have sexist attitudes towards women (Burt 1980). The beliefs put women in a place that is inferior to men. However, some stereotype gender roles are hazardous to women. They lead women to consider themselves as weaker than men hence must rely upon men (Burt 1980). This approach may lead to acceptance of abuse, depression, dependence and the like.
Research powerfully supports the postulation that people tolerate rape and blame the sufferer most, when they clinch on rape myths, hug traditional gender roles, accept interpersonal violence and have adversarial sexual beliefs (Burt 1980).
Sex, gender roles and attitudes towards rape victims
Researchers have found that women who hold traditional roles have high chance of being raped than those who have feminist views. Researchers have also shown that women who accepted rape myths and held more traditional sex roles could not believe a woman who said she was raped. Most researches have shown that men hold stronger beliefs in rape myths and hold stronger rape tolerant attitudes than women (Acock & Ireland 1983). These researches also indicate that men attribute more responsibility to the culprit than women. Men are seen to be more likely than women to accept that the woman in the incidence has done something wrong to provoke the rape (Acock & Ireland 1983).
The studies also found that men viewed rape victims less favourably than women. Women portrayed more negative attitudes towards rapists than men did, felt abit sure concerning his guilt and felt that he should spend more time in jail. Women, on top of feeling the crime to be serious, empathize with victims more than men. Moreover, both genders were seen to lay the blame on the victim in the acquaintance rape scene, on top of feeling stranger rape to be more serious crime than acquaintance (Miller 1996) (Acock & Ireland 1983).
Some researchers involving both genders attending rape workshops indicate that people who attended the workshop had crucially more positive attributes towards the victim and expressed the feeling that rapist should serve longer jail terms. This workshop is seen to have influenced men more than women. As per Brems and Wagner (1993), people with pro-feminist attitude are more likely to place minimum responsibility on the female victims of rape more above those holding traditional views and are more inclined to place blame on the rapist (Anderson & Spencer 2001) (Acock & Ireland 1983).
Attribution theory
The attribution theory is employed by some theorists to show how some individuals may place blame on victims of rape (Anderson. & Spencer 2001). More often than not, the victim’s demeanor, conditions of the attack, as well as the person’s behaviour helps assess how much blame the person will lay on the person raped. Attribution theory is based on the process of outlining causal inferences concerning behaviour. As far as attribution theory is concerned, it is assumed that when a person looks at an event, relying on background, experiment in addition to other information, the person is able to make out why the event happened (Nagel 2005).
This simply implies that when judging rape situations, a person’s own background, and the evidence available to him or her concerning the incident, the victim’s characteristics as well as the rapist’s characteristics will all form the basis upon which the person will place the blame on the victim and perpetrator (Anderson I. & Spencer C, 2001).
Cultural spill-over theory
This theory rooted upon the observation that social variables far from personal articulations, also contribute to interpersonal violence. What the theory proposes is that, “the more the society tries to acknowledge the use of physical force to attain socially accepted ends, for instance school order, crime control and military dominance, the more that force will be generalized to other aspects of life such as the family, sex relationships” (Anderson I. & Spencer C, 2001).
Thus rape may be indirectly accepted through cultural factors. Researchers have found that social settings that tend to endorse violence are marked by poverty, youthfulness as well as disadvantaged minorities.
Statement of the Problem
Rape is threatening the present day society. It not only affects the victim but also the friends and families of the victim. Researches carried out on this issue and related subjects have established that people with high degree of Christian fundamentalism are found to accept traditional sex roles as well as a high degree of authoritarianism. Those who highly accept rape myths have negative outlooks towards rape victims (Anderson & Spencer 2001). Men have high degree of myth acceptance hence negative outlook towards victims of rape, and endorsed traditional gender roles (Nagel 2005).
It is more often than not acknowledged that people have a propensity to identify the sufferers, as well as or even instead of the perpetrators of rape in negative terms, and much social psychological study has been dedicated to an assessment of factors controlling these observations.
The greater part of my study is focused on female rape, that is, the rape of women.
Two advances have dominated my study of blame attributions in rape. The first approach looks at the effect of victim, performer and situation characteristics on negative attributions in rape, and is commonly referred to in social psychology as the rape perception framework
Issues such as the victim’s decency, bodily beauty, earlier sexual doings, and victim struggle, degree of victim intoxication and how the victim was dressed at the time of the attack have entirely been found to manipulate negative attributions in rape.
Even though these studies commonly reveal comparatively reserved levels of issues such as fault attributed to victims, it is all the same important that these factors influence decisions about rape in exacting ways so that for instance, a divorcee, intoxicated or sexily dressed woman is regarded more negatively than a woman who is explained as abstemious or conventionally dressed.
The second approach focuses on the uniqueness of the partaker to elucidate rape victim blame. Under this approach motivational and personality defensive processes are considered to underlie negative attributions aimed at the rape victim. According to the Defensive Attribution Hypothesis, people are seen to increase or lessen blame depending on their apparent similarity with the sufferer as well as their supposed possibility of similar future victimization befalling them (Nagel 2005).
Defensive attributions foresee negative victim view to reduce as the comparison of the observer to the victim increases, this being a justification device to defend the viewer from being blamed themselves if a related destiny should befall him or her in the future (Nagel 2005).
Negative rape victim perception can also be explained through looking at attitudinal characteristics of the observer. Beliefs in conventional gender functions stereotyping, sexual conservatism and sex role point of reference have been associated to negative rape victim perception (Nagel 2005).
While understanding of the progressions that give rise to female rape victim, blame has mounted up in last years. In contrast, very little knowledge exists concerning the processes central to the perception of male rape victims. Nevertheless, studies propose that sexual violence against males take place more often than is commonly thought and that male victims of rape are likely to be blamed by others for their own rape same as the female victims.
In essence, raped males are equally viewed negatively and held responsible for their own rape as are female victims, predominantly by male viewers, as has been revealed in a number of rape perception studies (Acock & Ireland 1983). Workers in this field such as male health workers, police officers have a tendency of viewing male victims of rape negatively. Conversely, male rape measured against female rape, it is noted that there has been little research effort undertaken in assessing the reasoning behind male rape victim blame.
Desensitization and Media Effects
Desensitization is a psychological procedure that has frequently been employed in clarifying observers’ emotional reactions to media violence. Studies concerning emotional reactions to violent messages are based upon the likelihood that sustained contact with violence in the mass media will consequently lead to desensitization. What this means is that exposure to media violence will weaken feelings of concern, empathy, or sympathy that viewers might have toward victims of rape. According to research more recently by Daniel Linz, Edward Donner-stein, and Steven Penrod (1988) to measure the responses of adult men to films that portrayed violence against women, often in a sexual context, it was observed that with repeated exposure, preliminary levels of self-reported nervousness decreased considerably.
Additionally, the research participants’ views of the films also changed from the first day to the last day. Material that was beforehand considered violent and humiliating to women was considered radically less so by the end of the exposure period. The more the participants were exposed to the material the more they enjoyed it on top of becoming less depressed.
These effects generalized to responses to a victim of sexual assault in a mock trial presented to the men later. The findings were that those men who had exposure to the sexually violent films, compared to a no-exposure group, rated the sufferer as not having been seriously injured. The findings also indicated that the men who had exposure to the brutal film, again compared to men in a no-exposure control group, were also less sympathetic to the rape victim portrayed in the trial and less able to sympathize with rape victims in general.
These findings were not as a result of single film exposure, however longer film exposure was essential for it to affect the violence-viewing participants’ general empathetic response. Following other studies carried out more recently it was ascertained that viewing violent films results in less sympathy for victims of domestic violence as well as rape victims (Nagel 2005: 78).
By way of winding up, exposure to violence in the mass media may possibly result in desensitization consequences in which observers experience reduced feelings of concern, empathy, or sympathy toward victims of actual violence. Study has revealed that viewers who watch great quantity of media violence show a reduced amount of physiological reactivity to violence in other spheres. Both genders if exposed to media sexual violence they will show less sympathy toward rape victims depicted in other contexts and are normally less able to sympathize with rape victims. On the other hand, resensitization to victims after desensitization may take place if sufficient rest period is allowed.
Conclusion
Based on current studies it emerges that studies investigating attitudes toward victims of rape have repeatedly been inadequate because of integration in larger studies, instead of focusing exclusively on attitudes, on top of relying mainly on college-aged participants (Deitz 1982 ).
However, with a randomly sampled study, the results exhibit important group differences that seem to suggest the relationship between race and socioeconomic status concerning attitudes toward rape victims is complex (Deitz 1982). Moreover, age, sex, educational level, and income are crucial pointers in determining attitudes toward victims whether that portrayed by men or women (Miller 1996). For instance, men and individuals with higher levels of education are more likely to express sympathetic attitudes toward victims of rape, in contrast to the attitudes expressed by older individuals.
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