Title
Examining the Relationship Between Victimization, Psychopathy, and the Acceptance of Rape Myths
Campus Units
Sociology
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Accepted Manuscript
Publication Date
2020
Journal or Book Title
Journal of Interpersonal Violence
DOI
10.1177/0886260520966669
Abstract
Rape myths are attitudes that implicitly and explicitly blame victims for their own sexual victimization. Greater adherence to rape myths is linked to several negative outcomes, including the neutralization of gender-based violence and the perpetration of sexual violence. Few studies have considered how previous life experiences and individual-level traits influence the development and greater adherence to rape myths. The current study examines how traits associated with the three-factor model of psychopathy (i.e., egocentric, callous, and antisocial dimensions) and adherence to traditional gender roles mediate the relationship between prior childhood/adolescent victimization and the acceptance of rape myths in a sample of college men and women (N = 789). Path modeling indicates that experiences of psychological victimization (before age 16) increased egocentric psychopathic traits, which then increased the acceptance of rape myths in men. In women, however, sexual victimization (before age 16) increased the acceptance of traditional gender roles, which then influenced the acceptance of rape myths. Additionally, the egocentric facet of psychopathy exerted indirect effects on the acceptance of rape myths through traditional views on gender roles in both men and women. These findings highlight the need to continue to examine egocentric personality traits in relation to the development of rape myths in adolescent and young adult populations. Directions for collegiate programming are discussed.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Copyright Owner
The Authors
Copyright Date
2020
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Cooke, Eric M.; Lewis, Richard H.; Hayes, Brittany E.; Bouffard, Leana A.; Boisvert, Danielle L.; Wells, Jessica; Kavish, Nicholas; Woeckener, Matthias; and Armstrong, Todd A., "Examining the Relationship Between Victimization, Psychopathy, and the Acceptance of Rape Myths" (2020). Sociology Publications. 55.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/soc_las_pubs/55
Included in
Criminology Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons
Comments
This is a manuscript of an article published as Cooke, Eric M., Richard H. Lewis, Brittany E. Hayes, Leana A. Bouffard, Danielle L. Boisvert, Jessica Wells, Nicholas Kavish, Matthias Woeckener, and Todd A. Armstrong. "Examining the relationship between victimization, psychopathy, and the acceptance of rape myths." Journal of interpersonal violence (2020). doi: 10.1177/0886260520966669. Posted with permission.