Culture of honour and the blaming of women in cases of rape / La cultura del honor y la inculpación de la mujer en casos de violación

Abstract

Spanish

The main objective of this research was to examine the influence of the culture of honour on victim blaming according to three types of rape scenarios involving the rape of a married woman (stranger rape vs. acquaintance rape vs. marital rape). A total of 262 university students (120 men and 142 women) participated in this study. Our results confirmed the influence of the culture of honour on the acquaintance rape scenario in the degree of victim blaming, followed by the marital rape scenario. In both scenarios the behaviour of the victim challenged the codes of the culture of honour. The results confirmed that the participants’ answers depended on the interaction of situational variables of a rape (type of scenarios) and the variables concerning the observer (the culture of honour).

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abrams

Viki

G. T.

Masser

Bohner

(2003). Perceptions of stranger and acquaintance rape: The role of benevolent and hostile sexism in victim blame and rape proclivity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 111–125. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.1.111

Alberdi

Matas

(2002). La violencia doméstica. Informe sobre los malos tratos a mujeres en España [Domestic violence. Report on abuse of women in Spain]. Barcelona: Fundación La Caixa.

Anderson

Doherty

(2009). Accounting for rape: Psychology, feminism and discourse analysis in the study of sexual violence. Feminism & Psychology, 19, 138–140. doi:10.11777/09593535090190011202

Anderson

K. B.

Cooper

Okamura

(1997). Individual differences and attitudes toward rape: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 295–315. doi:10.1177/0146167297233008

Auster

C. J.

Leone

J. M.

(2001). Late adolescents’ perspective on marital rape: The impact of gender and fraternity/sorority membership. Adolescence, 36, 141–152.

Baldry

A. C.

Pagliaro

Porcaro

(2013). The rule of law at time of masculine honor: Afghan police attitudes and intimate partner violence. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 16, 363–374. doi:10.1177/1368430212462492

Basile

(2002). Prevalence of wife rape and other intimate partner sexual coercion in a nationally representative sample of women. Violence and Victims, 17, 511–524. doi:10.1891/vivi.17.5.511.33717

Ben-David

Schneider

(2005). Rape perceptions, gender role attitudes, and victim-perpetrator acquaintance. Sex Roles, 53, 385–399. doi:10.1007/s11199-005-6761-4

Bennice

J. A.

Resick

P. A.

(2003). Marital rape: History, research, and practice. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 4, 228–246. doi:10.1177/1524838003004003003

10.

Bohner

Reinhard

M.-A.

Rutz

Sturm

Kerschbaum

Effler

(1998). Rape myths as neutralizing cognitions: Evidence for a causal impact of anti-victim attitudes on men’s self-reported likelihood of raping. European Journal of Social Psychology, 28, 257–268. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(199803/04)28:2<257::AID-EJSP871>3.0.CO;2-1

11.

Bridges

J. S.

(1991). Perceptions of date and stranger rape: A difference in sex-role expectations and rape supportive beliefs. Sex Roles, 24, 291–307. doi:10.1007/BF00288303

12.

Brownmiller

(1975). Against our will: Men, women, and rape. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

13.

Burt

R. M.

(1980). Cultural myths and supports of rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 217–230. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.38.2.217

14.

Cadlhoun

K. S.

Townsley

R. M.

(1991). Attributions of responsibility for acquaintance. In Parrot

Bechhofer

(Eds.), Acquaintance rape: The hidden crime (pp. 57–69). New York, NY: Wiley.

15.

Caffaro

Ferraris

Schmidt

(2014). Gender differences in the perception of honour killing in individualist versus collectivistic cultures: Comparison between Italy and Turkey. Sex Roles, 71, 296–318. doi:10.1007/s11199-014-0413-5

16.

Canto

J. M.

Alvaro

J. L.

Pereira

Torres

A. R.

Pereira

(2012). Jealousy and infidelity: The role of gender identity and culture of honour. Estudios de Psicología, 33, 337–346. doi:10.1174/021093912803758129

17.

Canto

J. M.

Perles

San Martín

(2014). The role of right-wing authoritarianism, sexism and culture of honor in rape myths acceptance. International Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 296–318. doi:10.1080/02134748.2014.918822

18.

Cihangir

(2013). Gender specific honor codes and cultural change. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 16, 319–333. doi:10.1177/1368430212463453

19.

Cowan

(2000). Beliefs about the causes of four types of rape. Sex Roles, 42, 807–823. doi:10.1023/A:1007042215614

20.

Durán

Moya

Megías

J. L.

Viki

G. T.

(2010). Social perception of rape victims in dating and married relationships: The role of perpetrator’s benevolent sexism. Sex Roles, 62, 505–519. doi:10.1007/s11199-009-9676-7

21.

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights . (2014). Violence against women: Everyday and everywhere. Brussels: FRA.

22.

Ferro

Cermele

Saltzman

(2008). Current perceptions of marital rape. Some good and not-so-good news. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 13, 1–16. doi:10.1177/0886260507313947

23.

Forbes

G. B.

Adams-Curtis

L. E.

White

K. B.

(2004). First and second generation measures of sexism, rape myths and related beliefs, and hostility toward women. Violence Against Women, 10, 236–261. doi:10.1177/1077801203256002

24.

Frese

Moya

Megías

J. L.

(2004). Social perception of rape: How rape myth acceptance modulates the influence of situational factors. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 19, 143–161. doi:10.1177/0886260503260245

25.

Frith

(2009). Sexual scripts, sexual refusals and rape. In Hovart

Brown

(Eds.), Rape: Challenging contemporary thinking (pp. 99–122). Cullompton, UK: Willian.

26.

Fuertes

Ramos

Martínez

J. L.

López

Tabernero

(2006). Prevalencia y factores de vulnerabilidad y protección de la victimización en las relaciones con los iguales en las mujeres universitarias españolas [Prevalence and factors of vulnerability and protection of victimization in the relationships in Spanish university women]. Child Abuse & Neglect, 30, 799–814. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2006.06.002

27.

Gartzia

Lopez-Zafra

(2014). Gender research in Spanish psychology: An overview for international readers. Sex Roles, 70, 445–456. doi:10.1007/s11199-014-0380-x

28.

Guerra

V. M.

Giner-Sorolla

Vasiljevic

(2013). The importance of honor concerns across eight countries. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 16, 298–318. doi:10.1177/1368430212463451

29.

Henry

P. J.

(2009). Low-status compensation: A theory for understanding the role of status in cultures of honor. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 451–466. doi:10.1037/a0015476

30.

Johnson

J. D.

Russ

(1989). Effects of salience of consciousness-raising information on perceptions of acquaintance versus stranger rape. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 19, 1182–1197. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1989.tb01246.x

31.

Kilpatrick

D. G.

Resnick

H. S.

Saunders

B. E.

Best

(1998). Rape, other violence against women, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In Dohrenwend

(Ed.), Adversity, stress, and psychopathology (pp. 161–176). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

32.

King

(2008). The personal is patrilineal: Namus as sovereignty. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 15, 317–342.

33.

Krahé

Temkin

Bieneck

Berger

(2008). Prospectiva lawyers´rape stereotypes and schematic decision-making about rape cases. Psychology, Crime and Law, 14, 461–479. doi:10.1080/10683160801932380

34.

Lopez-Zafra

(2007). Elaboración de una escala para medir cultura del honor [Development of a scale to measure culture of honor]. Revista de Psicología Social, 22, 31–42. doi:10.1174/021347407779697520

35.

Malamuth

N. M.

Check

J. V.

(1985). The effects of aggressive pornography on beliefs in rape myrhs: Individual differences. Journal of Research in Personality, 19, 299–320. doi:10.1016/0092-6566(85)90021-2

36.

Martin

E. K.

Taft

C. T.

Resick

P. A.

(2007). A review of marital rape. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 12, 329–347. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2006.10.003

37.

Milhaussen

Herold

(1999). Does the sexual double standard still exist? Perceptions of university women. The Journal of Sex Research, 36, 361–368. doi:10.1080/0022449990955200

38.

Pitt-Rivers

(1965). Honour and social status. In Peristiany

J. G.

(Ed.), Honour and shame: The values of Mediterranean society (pp. 18–77). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

39.

Puente

Cohen

(2003). Jealousy and the meaning (or non-meaning) of violence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 449–460. doi:10.1177/0146167202250912

40.

Rodriguez-Mosquera

P. M.

(2011). Masculine and feminine honor codes. Revista de Psicología Social, 26, 63–72. doi:10.1174/021347411794078499

41.

Rodriguez-Mosquera

P. M.

(2013). In the name of honor: On virtue, reputation and violence. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 16, 271–278. doi: 10.1177/1368430212472590

42.

Rodriguez-Mosquera

P. M.

Manstead

A. S.

Fischer

A. H.

(2002). Honor in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 33, 16–36. doi:10.1177/0022022102033001002

43.

Steward

F. H.

(1994). Honor. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.

44.

Suarez

Gadalla

T. M.

(2010). Stop blaming the victim: A meta-analysis on rape myths. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25, 2010–2035. doi:10.1177/0886260509354503

45.

Süssenbach

Bohner

(2011). Acceptance of sexual aggression myths in a representative sample of German residents. Aggressive Behavior, 37, 374–385. doi:10.1002/ab.20390

46.

Temkin

Krahé

(2008). Sexual assault and the justice gap: A question of attitude. Oxford: Hart.

47.

United Nations Organization . (2015). United Nations Office on drugs and crime. Retrieved from www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Crime-statistics/Sexual_violence_sv_againts_children_and_rape.xls

48.

Van Osch

Breugelmans

S. M.

Zeelenberg

Bölük

(2013). A different kind of honor culture: Family honor and aggression in Turks. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 16, 334–344. doi:10.1177/1368430212467475

49.

Vandello

J. A.

Cohen

(2003). Masculine honor and female fidelity: Implicit cultural scripts that perpetuate domestic violence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 997–1010. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.997

50.

Viki

G. T.

Abrams

Masser

(2004). Evaluating stranger and acquaintance rape: The role of benevolent sexism in perpetrator blame and recommended sentence length. Law and Human Behavior, 28, 295–303. doi:10.1023/B:LAHU.0000029140.72880.69

51.

Woody

J. D.

Beldin

K. L.

(2012). The mental health focus in rape crisis services: Tensions and recommendations. Violence and Victims, 27, 95–108. doi:10.1891/0886-6708-27.195

52.

World Health Organization . (2005). WHO multi-country study on women´s health and domestic violence against women. Geneva: World Health Organization.