Research has linked rape victim-blaming attitudes (VBAs) with gender role stereotyping, negative peer attitudes towards women, and acceptance of interpersonal violence. The current study analyzed longitudinal questionnaire data of college men (n=166) from White and Smith's (2001) study of college student victimization. Results indicate that VBAs can be conceptualized as either overt or covert, and that the covert VBA was more strongly correlated with alcohol use, sexualized peer attitudes, traditional gender stereotypes, need for sexual dominance, and perpetration of dating aggression. The covert VBA was also correlated with rape proclivity one year later, and partially mediated relationships between earlier variables and later rape proclivity. Additionally, endorsement of chivalry moderated the relationship between traditional gender stereotypes and the covert VBA, casting new perspective on the role of chivalry. Overall, results demonstrate the importance of targeting subtle expressions of VBAs in educational programs, and the need for longitudinal studies on rape attitude development.

Sexual assault on college campuses continues to be a pervasive public health issue with approximately one in five women experiencing sexual assault. Stranger rape is most commonly what people think of when they think of sexual assault, however, acquaintance rape is the most common form of sexual assault. Yet, victims are blamed more in acquaintance rape as compared to stranger rape situations. Thus, the perceptions of sexual assault occurring in various romantic relationships warrants further attention. Using an online survey at a large southern university, the current study examines the perceptions of college students, in various sexual assault scenarios, including stranger, acquaintance, committed dating, cohabitating, and marital. In addition, the levels of victim blame, rape myths, sexual attitudes and beliefs, and hostility toward women are examined. Findings may help inform future prevention efforts to help reduce rape myths regarding dating and marital rape.

The current case involves a female rape victim. Research has shown the level of victim blaming can be elevated if the victim is a lesbian woman compared to a heterosexual woman. Mock jurors’ responses to personality trait questionnaires (e.g., Belief in a Just World, Attitudes Toward Women, Attitudes Toward Lesbians) and amount of contact they have with homosexual people were employed as predictors of how they would decide victim blaming and perpetrator guilt. Personality trait findings were not good predictors; however, greater contact with homosexuals did decrease negative attitudes toward lesbian victims. Limitations and implications for future research are addressed.

This thesis report explores and talks about my different experiences, thoughts, ideas, designs and field trips that I took in order to make my project happen. For my project, I created a 3D graphic book and I wanted to educate, empower and start conversations with young teen girls in India about consent and victim blaming through it. I have explored how to talk about a serious topic such as rape without triggering people, given a detailed insight as to how I discovered my visual style for my book, explored how people in India react to my project, sex education level taught in India, collaborated with different people in Sweden and India that helped make my project work and used a metaphorical story of Medusa to communicate my message.

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This study investigated the relationships among the sex of respondents, the age of depicted perpetrators, the sex of depicted victims and perpetrators, and various respondent attributions toward hypothetical sexual abuse vignettes, in which a depicted 15-year old victim neither resisted nor encouraged a perpetrator's actions. The study also investigated the relationships of respondent sexual and gender-role attitudes and the aforementioned respondent attributions, Respondents (N = 262, 136 males and 126 females) were each presented with six (3 X 2) written vignettes in which the age of the perpetrator (15-, 25-, and 35-years old) and the sex of the perpetrator (male or female; only heterosexual interactions were used) were manipulated. Results suggested that there were significant respondent sex differences, with female respondents being more pro-victim and perceiving the depicted interactions as more abusive and more representative of child sexual abuse, Further, the age of the perpetrator was a significant factor for male respondent attributions, with more culpability and responsibility being attributed to older perpetrators. For male and female respondents, the age of the perpetrator was a significant factor in the ratings of abusiveness and the vignette's representativeness of , child sexual abuse, with the ratings of vignettes with older perpetrators being perceived as more abusive and more representative of child sexual abuse. The sex of the depicted perpetrator also was a significant factor for male respondent attributions, with more culpability and responsibility being attributed to depicted male perpetrators. For male and female respondents, the sex of the depicted perpetrator was a significant factor in the ratings of abusiveness and the vignette's representativeness of child sexual abuse, with the ratings of vignettes with male perpetrators being perceived as more abusive and more representative of child sexual abuse. Finally, gender-role attitudes and various sexual attitudes did not correlate consistently with respondent attributions of child sexual abuse in these scenarios. These findings emphasize the need to educate the general public about child sexual abuse and unwanted sexual contact involving individuals under the age of consent.

<p>The overall aim of this thesis was to deepen understanding of elder abuse (EA) by exploring and comparing perceptions held by experts, older persons, representatives of potential support organizations, and family members. Experts’ perspectives (I) were examined through risk indicators and screening questions (a) located in EA literature and (b) selected by an international Delphi panel. Risk indicators most commonly found in the literature or selected by the panel were compiled into consensus lists. There were differences between risk indicators and questions in the two lists. In papers II and III participants were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of EA. Older persons (II) considered EA to be due to changing society and family systems where children are not brought up to respect older persons. EA was mainly conceptualized as ageism, criminal actions, mistreatment in residential care, and societal abuse. The abuser was perceived as a stranger or a healthcare worker. Fear was discussed as a major consequence of EA; especially fear among women. Abused persons were described as carrying the responsibility to seek help. Witnesses were described as hesitant to get involved. Improvements in society such as educating children and healthcare workers were considered ways to cope with EA. Besides family and friends there were few spontaneous suggestions for where to seek help and support in society. These suggestions included healthcare, police, church, and volunteer organizations. Representatives of these suggested organizations were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of EA (III). Perceptions of both causes and conceptions of EA were very similar to perceptions of older persons (II). Four themes emerged in the data; good intentions in abusive situations, older generation’s responsibility for EA, failing to report abuse, and prevention of abuse. Participants (III) also expressed ageist attitudes themselves and findings included victim blaming and tolerance for EA. Participants perceived that anyone could be provoked to abuse, and that abusers can be considered victims in abusive situations. Confidentiality was discussed as a barrier to reporting and the need for educating children to show respect for older persons was identified. Interviews with an adult family member (IV) explored her experiences of witnessing abuse situations between her uncle and his wife. In her desire to protect and remain loyal to her family she felt powerless and tolerated abuse. She longed for support she could trust but was locked into passivity by her feelings of shame. Synthesis of findings (I – IV) revealed issues of isolation, autonomy, vulnerability, victim blaming, perceiving the abuser as a victim of circumstances, ageism, tolerating EA, shame, and power as essential elements in EA. Based on the findings, alternative descriptions of EA are offered as a challenge to existing EA definitions. Findings suggest that a key to unlocking EA is compassion, understood as the ability to see a situation as if we were in it ourselves, experiencing the potential for disrespect, shame and unworthiness inherent in abusive acts.</p>

The overall aim of this thesis was to deepen understanding of elder abuse (EA) by exploring and comparing perceptions held by experts, older persons, representatives of potential support organizations, and family members. Experts’ perspectives (I) were examined through risk indicators and screening questions (a) located in EA literature and (b) selected by an international Delphi panel. Risk indicators most commonly found in the literature or selected by the panel were compiled into consensus lists. There were differences between risk indicators and questions in the two lists. In papers II and III participants were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of EA. Older persons (II) considered EA to be due to changing society and family systems where children are not brought up to respect older persons. EA was mainly conceptualized as ageism, criminal actions, mistreatment in residential care, and societal abuse. The abuser was perceived as a stranger or a healthcare worker. Fear was discussed as a major consequence of EA; especially fear among women. Abused persons were described as carrying the responsibility to seek help. Witnesses were described as hesitant to get involved. Improvements in society such as educating children and healthcare workers were considered ways to cope with EA. Besides family and friends there were few spontaneous suggestions for where to seek help and support in society. These suggestions included healthcare, police, church, and volunteer organizations. Representatives of these suggested organizations were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of EA (III). Perceptions of both causes and conceptions of EA were very similar to perceptions of older persons (II). Four themes emerged in the data; good intentions in abusive situations, older generation’s responsibility for EA, failing to report abuse, and prevention of abuse. Participants (III) also expressed ageist attitudes themselves and findings included victim blaming and tolerance for EA. Participants perceived that anyone could be provoked to abuse, and that abusers can be considered victims in abusive situations. Confidentiality was discussed as a barrier to reporting and the need for educating children to show respect for older persons was identified. Interviews with an adult family member (IV) explored her experiences of witnessing abuse situations between her uncle and his wife. In her desire to protect and remain loyal to her family she felt powerless and tolerated abuse. She longed for support she could trust but was locked into passivity by her feelings of shame. Synthesis of findings (I – IV) revealed issues of isolation, autonomy, vulnerability, victim blaming, perceiving the abuser as a victim of circumstances, ageism, tolerating EA, shame, and power as essential elements in EA. Based on the findings, alternative descriptions of EA are offered as a challenge to existing EA definitions. Findings suggest that a key to unlocking EA is compassion, understood as the ability to see a situation as if we were in it ourselves, experiencing the potential for disrespect, shame and unworthiness inherent in abusive acts.

This essay aims to investigate how female murder victims are portrayed in Swedish newspapers. By analyzing how the murder of the two Swedish women, Tova Moberg and Kim Wall, are portrayed in four of Sweden’s biggest newspapers; Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet we aim to understand if, and how, they differ. Four research questions have therefore been conducted: 1) What are the similarities and differences between Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet’s way of portraying female murder victims? 2) What meaning does the genre, for example type of newspaper, the editorial department and type of article have in the depiction of female murder victims? 3) What meaning does the production of the male suspects (in these two specific cases) have for the portrait of the female murder victims? And lastly 4) How can our results be connected to previous research, in terms of media representations of women as crime victims? The theoretical framework was used to answer these four questions, and involves the social constructionism perspective, genre theory, gender theory and a combined chapter of media rethorics, media logic and media dramaturgy. The material consists of articles from the four newspapers, and the chosen method is textual analysis. The results show, that there are explicit examples, and implicit tendencies of victim blaming in both murder cases, but not in all four papers. In conclusion, the tabloids tend to write in a way to intrigue and interest, while the daily newspapers seem to write in more of an objective and neutral manner. This essay is partly built upon previous studies on victim blaming in british newspapers. Previous research about the phenomena of victim blaming or ideal victim has not been conducted in swedish press and this essay can therefore serve as a contribution to the scientific field of media and communication and journalism in Sweden.

This thesis critically examines dominant conceptualizations of safety crimes – offences by corporations that seriously injure and kill workers – within the Alberta oil and gas industry. Using critical discourse analysis, and relying on and Foucaultian and Marxist literatures, the thesis critically examines the extent to which government fatality reports, workplace safety education campaigns and court decisions characterize safety crimes primarily as ‘accidents’ caused by ‘careless’ workers. Two main discourses were found: first, workers were responsibilized, effectively blamed for their own injury and death in the workplace while employers were characterized as largely good and law-abiding; second, serious injury and death was (re)conventionalized as the regrettable but largely unintentional and unavoidable side effect of capitalist production. In the process, the underlying causes of safety crimes, including weak and under-enforced laws and a socio-economic context that prioritizes profits over worker safety, remain untouched.