Literature Review #4

It's Her Fault: Student Acceptance of Rape Myths On Two College Campuses

Citation:
Hayes, R.M., et al. "It’s Her Fault: Student Acceptance of Rape Myths on Two College Campuses." Violence against Women, vol. 22, no. 13, 01 Nov. 2016, p. 1540-1555. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/1077801216630147.

Summary:
This article was written to show the acceptance of rape myths amongst college students. Men were more likely to accept the rape myths than women. They often blamed them for being the victim of a sexual assault. Additionally, a lot of the men proved that they had committed a sexual assault unknowingly, however, said that it was not a violent sexual encounter, therefore, it did not constitute a sexual assault.

Author:
Rebecca M. Hayes has a Ph. D. in Sociology and Criminology & Law. She focuses on victimization which is why she took to write this article and conduct the study about rape myths. She has researched about violence against women and has written various articles for prestigious journals to advocate for victims. Both Rebecca L. Abbot and Savannah Cook are graduates of Central Michigan University and assisted in the study with Hayes.

Key Terms:
Rape Myths: attitudes and false beliefs held about rape that deny or minimize victim injury and blame the victims for their assauly
Victim Blaming: blaming the victims for the cause of their own victimization

Quotes:
"With the age group of 16-24 experiencing the most sexual assault (Smith & Welchans, 2000), alcohol as the number one date rape drug, (Scott-Ham & Burton, 2006) and with the highest concentration of females, college campuses are graught with issues of sexual assault," (Hayes et al. 1541).

"In a study of both sexes, Anderson et al. (2005) found that males, not females, were more likely to report that they would take advantage of someone sexually after heavy episodic drinking," (Hayes et al. 1544).

"Lee et al. (2005) found that men are more likely than women to hold tolerant attitudes toward rape and attribute blame to the victim. Therefore, the blame indicates that women should be held responsible for th prevention of rape," (Hayes et al. 1543).

"In one study, 23% of college men surveyed admitted to committing acts that met the legal definition of rape, and most of them did not perceive that anything unusual or aggressive had taken place (Burgess, 2007).

Value:
This is an important article for my research paper because it highlights the problem of victim blaming and rape myths. Due to rape myths, victims often choose to not report their sexual assaults because they feel as though they were the cause. It is a society that blames them for being too drunk, or dressing a certian way, or say that "boys will be boys." This type of pass for the perpetrators should no longer be accepted. It is never the victims fault for being sexually assaulted. Many of the men were asked whether or not they considered a drunken sexual encounter as rape when their partner was too intoxicated to fully give consent and they denied it although it followed the legal definition of rape. Clearly there is a problem with people not fully knowing what consent is and how to ask.