Evolutionary theory predicts that sexual coercion and rape are likely to occur in any species in which males are more aggressive, more eager to mate, more sexually assertive, and less discriminating in choosing a mate (Thornhill & Palmer, 2000). McKibbin and Shackelford (2011) state that males of many species have evolved strategies to sexually coerce and rape females. It is for this reason that researchers have speculated that several female traits or behaviors evolved to reduce the risks of being raped (McKibbin & Shackelford, 2011). The rationale behind the proposed experiment examined whether parents’ childrearing practices and women’s plasticity during childhood may have influenced the development of psychological mechanisms in response to the recurrent adaptive problem of rape. Analyses showed that maternal support during childhood predicted how frequently rape-avoidance behaviors were exhibited by women as adults. Analyses also showed that father absence was related to earlier sexual activity but age of menarche did not predict and was not associated with any rape-avoidance behaviors. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The aim of this present study was to investigate the effects of ambivalent sexism, locus of control, empathy and belief in a just world on attitudes toward rape victims. In order to do so, 425 graduate and undergraduate students at Middle East Technical University participated in the current study. The results of the study indicated that hostile sexism (&amp / #946 / = .47), empathy (&amp / #946 / = -.28), education (&amp / #946 / = -.22), internal locus of control (&amp / #946 / = .10), belief in a just world (&amp / #946 / = .10), benevolent sexism (&amp / #946 / = .10) and income (&amp / #946 / = -.09) had a significant contribution on the participants&rsquo / unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims after eliminating the effects of age and education. Additional analysis further revealed that male participants demonstrated significantly more endorsement on unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims than female participants. The main effect of pornography viewing on attitudes toward rape victims was not found significant. However, the results further indicated that there was a significant interaction effect among gender, pornography viewing and empathy. That is, in the high victim empathy condition male participants who had been exposed to pornography scored significantly higher on unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims than those who had never been exposed to it. On the other hand, in the high empathy condition, female participants who viewed pornography showed less endorsement on unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims than those who never viewed pornography. Finally, the results of the study indicated that the interaction effects of pornography viewing and hostile sexism were significant. Indeed, in the high hostile sexism condition, both male and female participants who were exposed to pornography showed significantly greater endorsement on unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims when compared to those who did not watch pornography. The major contributions of this thesis are (1) investigating some of the effects of important demographic variables such as age, education and income, (2) comparing the unique contributions of locus of control, empathy, belief in a just world, hostile and benevolent sexism with a hierarchical regression analysis, and (3) showing the interaction effects of some variables like gender, pornography viewing, levels of empathy and hostile sexism on participants&rsquo / attitudes toward rape victims.

<p>Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust is an organisation that trains and supervises a team of women counsellors who provide a counselling service to women rape survivors. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of the counsellors and the counselling co-ordinator regarding their perceptions on whether the training provided by the personal growth and counselling skills course is adequate in dealing with rape and its complexities.</p>

Teilw. zugl.: @Habil.-Schr. / Literaturverz. S. [211] - 232.

The prevalence of rape in South Africa is widespread and survivors often experience severe posttraumatic stress and shame. Although secondary traumatic stress (STS) is a risk for everyone who works with primary survivors of trauma it has only been examined in a variety of professionals that provide supportive and clinical services to traumatised populations. Little is known about the impact that this experience has on the friends and family members that support these survivors. In some cases, supporters have to find a way to cope with significant distress associated with witnessing posttraumatic stress in a loved one. This begs the question of how their perceived ability to cope would influence their experience of STS. However, no studies exist that explore the dynamics between severity of posttraumatic stress in rape survivors and secondary traumatic stress and coping self-efficacy in their supporters. For this quantitative study, 23 rape survivors from a local non-governmental organisation completed the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire-Revised (HTQ-R). The 28 informal supporters that were identified, completed the Traumatic Attachment Belief Scale (TABS) and the Coping Self-Efficacy Scale (CSE). Cross-group equivalence, the presence of the outlined factors in the sample, as well as the interaction between factors, are explored and described. Findings indicate that although the survivors endorsed some symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, their scores were not elevated enough to meet the cut-off point for this diagnosis. Findings related to the supporters indicate that the sample experienced average to high average levels of secondary traumatisation. Despite this, the subjects experienced adequate levels of coping self-efficacy. These findings indicate a need to provide more counselling resources to informal supporters in order to alleviate their secondary traumatisation and in turn increase their ability to assist primary rape survivors.

There is a growing body of research on sexual citizenship that focuses attention on gender and which bridges the gap between public and private life in order to rethink citizenship from a feminist perspective. This is in contrast to understandings of citizenship that promote policies of sexual regulation and a heteronormative ideal of citizenship. My research takes the form of a qualitative case study. Using data from two focus group discussions, fifteen personal diaries, as well as social media posts, I analyse participation in the Silent Protest, an annual anti-rape protest, through the lens of sexual citizenship. I look at how participation in the protest promotes or inhibits inclusive and process-based understandings of sexual violence and sexualities issues. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and the results of the analysis are presented into two parts. The first part of the analysis discusses the politics of affect and witnessing as two processes through which allies’ understandings of sexual violence are shaped. The second part of analysis shows that the Silent Protest contributes to people’s knowledge and understandings of sexual violence in relation to sexualities in a range of ways. Examples of inclusive understandings are: (1) insights about rape in relation to gender and heteronormative inequalities, culture and patriarchal dominance; (2) understanding of critical sexual citizenship in relation to sexual violence; and (3) understanding of politics of recognition (the need for recognition of the importance of safe spaces for formal and informal support for victim-survivors and recognition of victim-survivors’ identities). However, some of the understandings are limited to emotion and affect dynamics. In some ways, therefore, the Silent Protest fails to promote understandings significant to inclusive citizenship, including understandings of entitlements to non-discriminatory sexual health care services and legal services.

Rape is a serious highly prevalent crime committed every day around the world, and affects both men and women. Rape victims must report the incidence to the police, and often the police they report to are male law enforcement officers. Yet many people in South Africa, including male law enforcement officers, do not fully accept that males can be and are victims of rape. So far there has been significantly little research into the reporting of male rape. Thus a qualitative research study on the attitudes of male law enforcement officers towards male rape victims was conducted. Social constructionism was taken as a theoretical starting point to the formal literature. The formal literature itself deals with male rape, how it is perceived, understood and misunderstood by society at large and specifically, by male law enforcement officers. The myths and truths, as well as stigmas associated with male rape are also explored. The impact of gender issues such as gender identity, gender roles and gender stereotypes are explored in-depth as they contribute to attitudes held by male law enforcement officers. Six male law enforcement officers from a Johannesburg police station participated in this study. Every one of them had had a certain amount of experience in the SAPS dealing with rape and rape victims. The researcher identified themes dealing with male rape victims from the literature, and interviewed the participants according to these themes using a semi-structured and structured format. The interviews were coded and analysed in a manner that allowed the themes, which were informed by the literature, to surface from the interview data itself. This is consistent with the qualitative tradition of psychological research. It was found that, male law enforcement officers’ attitudes towards male rape victims influence the way they think about and perceive these victims. It is very likely that this influence has a negative impact on the psychological well being of the male rape victim. It was also found that many male rape victims do not report their victimisation to the police as they fear they will not be taken seriously, they will be laughed at or even ridiculed. The law enforcement officers confirm that the stigma and shame of male rape victims compound their experience, making it traumatic and nearly impossible for them to process. The researcher believes that a change in these attitudes can lead to a change in the way male rape victims are perceived and treated by law enforcement officers, as well as by society as a whole. Further study into the role of cultural beliefs concerning masculinity and gender roles in the South African context can contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon of male rape, and can be integrated into the current intervention models used to treat these victims. / Dissertation (MA (Clinical Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Psychology / unrestricted

This research report documents the therapeutic intervention undertaken with a 23-year-old Swazi rape victim. The format of this research report takes the form of a case study that follows the principles proposed by Fishman (2005). Its aim is to document the treatment process of an individual of African decent in order to establish whether the treatment model can be effective in clinical settings and in contexts and cultural settings different from that in which it was developed. The Ehlers and Clark (2000) cognitive therapy model for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was utilised to assess, conceptualise, and treat the case. The client entered therapy three years after being raped for a third time. The case formulation identified factors maintaining the disorder as well as how other traumatic and abusive events earlier in her life influenced her response to the rapes. Data consisted off audio-tape recordings and detailed written synopses of each assessment and therapy session, psychometric measurement instruments and self-report scales completed throughout the intervention, material written by the client, and a research interview conducted by an independent party. She was treated for PTSD and comorbid depression over a period of five months in accordance with the principles described by Ehlers and Clark and a narrative of the treatment process was written. The case narrative in conjunction with quantitative data suggested that this model assisted the client in initiating a healing process. As such the model was found to be both effective and transportable to an African context. Various points of discussion are highlighted, including the challenges of working with PTSD and comorbid major depression, the client-therapist relationship, and that a client and therapist from different cultures, backgrounds, and with different home languages can work together effectively using the Ehlers and Clark model.

Föreliggande uppsats är en kvalitativ innehållsanalys om sexuellt våld i nyhetsmedia. Syftet med uppsatsen är att belysa hur nyhetsmedia konstruera bilder av kvinnor och män som har varit utsatta för, vad de valda dagstidningarna, rubricerar som våldtäkt samt att undersöka hur begreppet våldtäkt används i de utvalda artiklarna. Urval och empiri består 21 artiklar från fyra valda dagstidningar: Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet. Uppsatsen genomsyras av tre teoretiska perspektiv: socialkonstruktivism, viktimisering och dagordningsteorin. Uppsatsens centrala resultat är att våldtäktsmyter om både våldtäktsoffer och våldtäkter är utbredda på olika sätt i samhället. Både uttalanden som bekräftar såväl som motsäger våldtäktsmyter återfinns i artiklarna. Resultatet är spretigt och visar att sexuellt våld är ett tämligen komplext och svårfattligt begrepp samt ämne. Det har uppdagats att våldtäktsoffer konstrueras på olika sätt i artiklarna men att bekräftande av våldtäktsmyter inte är dominerande. Därav är den mest betydelsefulla slutsatsen av uppsatsen att resultatet pekar på en positiv förändring av hur offer för sexuella övergrepp och/eller våldtäkter framställs i nyhetsmedia. / This study is a qualitative content analysis about sexual violence in news media. The study aims to illustrate how news media construct portrayals of women and men that have been victims of, what the selected newspapers define as rape. The study also intended to analyse how the term rape is used in the selected articles. The empirical data consist of 21 articles, selected from four Swedish newspapers: Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. Three theore-tical perspectives have been used throughout the study: social constructivism, victimology and agenda theory. The results has shown that society's perception regarding rape victims and rape are influenced by well known rape myths. Both confirmative as contradictory comments connected to rape myths are to be found in the articles. The results has no given patterns, which shows the complexity and obscurity in the subject of sexual violence. In addition, the results have displayed that rape victims are constructed in different ways in the articles. Our conclusion is that it seems to be a positive progress in development about how victims of sexual assaults and/or rape are portrayed in news media.

The relation between dissociative symptoms and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was investigated in women who had experienced trauma or sexual assault. Subjects were administered the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), the Sexual Experiences Scale (SES), and the PTSD Interview (PTSD-I). Subjects were grouped according to their scores on the SES and the PTSD-I. Analysis of variance revealed a relation between DES scores and PTSD symptom severity scores. Correlational analyses showed a relation between dissociative symptoms and PTSD symptom severity but not recency of trauma. Three factors from a previously published factor analysis of the DES were found to contribute to the DES scores of PTSD subjects.