Although rape is prevalent in the United States, conviction rates for perpetrators are low. Before developing a solution for low conviction rates in rape cases, researchers must examine factors that influence juror decisions in rape trials. The current study investigated the influence of complainant substance use and juror education about rape myths and sexual consent laws. Mock jurors were randomly assigned to one of twelve conditions and after reading the rape trial summary were asked to rate defendant guilt and complainant and defendant blameworthiness and credibility. Mock jurors in the education condition rated the defendant as significantly guiltier and more to blame for the sexual assault than did mock jurors in the no education condition.

Research indicates nearly one-fourth of college women fall victim to sexual assault (Cantor et. al., 2015). Two predictors of high proclivity to rape are endorsement of rape myths and adherence to traditional gender norms (King & Roberts, 2011). Additionally, research shows school-based sex education in the United States presents gender and sexual norms in troubling ways that disproportionately harm women (Kendall, 2013). However, research on sexual assault and rape myths have not examined the impact school-based sex education has on rape supportive attitudes. This study aimed to bridge that gap by using original survey data from undergraduate students at a large public university. Analyses indicate sex education has an inconsistent impact on rape myth acceptance; additionally, seeking sexual health information online was found to significantly lower endorsement of rape myths. Study outcomes suggest that further research is needed to explore the relationship between sex education curricula and rape supportive attitudes.

This essay discusses rape and silence in J.M. Coetzee’s novel Disgrace, with focus on how and why the characters Melanie and Lucy are silenced after being raped. Paying special attention to gender and race, as well as the novel’s South African context, an attempt is made to consider how rape is represented in Disgrace, and how this representation is related to the silence of Melanie and Lucy. The discussion’s theoretical framework is based on feminist theories on sexual violence and rape, as well as theory on cultural scripts, sexual scripts, and rape myths. This essay finds that the rapes in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace are representations of South Africa’s inverted racial power structures, and its traditional gender structures; structures that contribute to silencing Melanie and Lucy. This essay argues that Coetzee has deliberately activated South African cultural scripts in the text in an attempt to expose problematic viewpoints regarding gender and race in society, as well as in the reader.

Sexuellt våld förekommande i konfliktområden drabbar så väl kvinnor som män. Dock råder en situation då de drabbade männen faller i skuggorna i nyhetsrapporteringen och de drabbade kvinnornas röster ljuder starkare. Syftet med uppstasen är att undersöka nyhetsrapporteringen i sex olika internationella nyhetsmedier för att utreda hur det sexuella våldet mot män i Demokratiska Republiken Kongo framställs. Undersökningen har en teoretisk ansats i ett genusperspektiv kopplat till manlighet. Det analytiska ramverket som valts att användas är en kvalitativ  textanalys. / Sexual violence occurring in areas of conflict affects as well women as men. However, there is a situation where the affected men fall in the shadows and the affected women's voices sounds stronger threw the crowd. The purpose of the paper, is to investigate news reporting in six different international newsmedia to investigate how sexual violence against men in the Democratic Republic of Congo reflects abused men. The survey has a theoretical approach from a gender perspective linked to masculinity. The analytical framework chosen is a qualitative text analysis.

Legal practice heavily depends on the construction and evaluation of narrative accounts. The ability to legitimately narrate a series of events is a source of power that is unequally distributed in the courtroom. Grounded by a detailed empirical analysis of the court transcripts from R. v. Ghomeshi (2016), this dissertation investigates the relations of power and taken-for-granted assumptions that condition struggles over narrative construction in the sexual assault trial. The project contributes to feminist critiques of sexual assault trials by mobilizing the work of Pierre Bourdieu, which has been largely overlooked in feminist socio-legal scholarship, and by showing how the concepts of narrative capital and what I term configurational power can help us examine narrative power structures. Briefly, narrative capital refers to the speaking positions and properties that bestow authority on one’s narrative practices. The term configurational power refers to the ability to legitimately organize a set of events and experiences into a narrative whole. Through consideration of the conditions and premises that structure who can narrate, in what manner and with what legitimacy, we can better understand the factors contributing to the discrediting of certain testimonies in the courtroom. Analysing the court transcripts revealed several techniques through which the lawyers exercised configurational power and narrative domination over the complainants during the trial: disconnecting and interrupting the complainants’ accounts; highlighting the complainants’ position as unknowing characters; configuring inconsistencies in their accounts; and controlling the narrative ending. Unequal distributions of configurational power constituted a relation of domination that existed as self-evidently legitimate, a form of domination that Bourdieu refers to as symbolic violence. The standards of legal impartiality, autonomy, and objectivity, as well as cultural stock stories about sexual assault and law’s taken-for-granted view of reliable memory, were enacted in the courtroom narrative practices and contributed to the reproduction of this symbolic violence. The unequal relations of narrative capital and configurational power in the courtroom limited the complainants’ ability to narrate their victimization and allowed the defence lawyers to create narrative twists during cross-examination that framed the complainants as manipulative women and upended their claims of victimhood. Through this dissertation, I critically analyze the relations of domination that both condition and were reproduced in the courtroom practices of narrative telling and interpretation.

This study focused on the relationship of five variables: rape myth acceptance, attitudes toward rape victims, sex roles, authoritarianism, and Christian fundamentalism. Also, differences between men and women were compared. The study was conducted at East Tennessee State University, and 100 people participated. Contrary to past research, Christian fundamentalism was not a significant predictor of rape myth acceptance or attitudes towards rape victims, but there were significant relationships between all of the other variables. Men were found to be more accepting of rape myths and had a more negative view of rape victims than did women. Implications of these findings, future research ideas, and possible rape-awareness educational programs are discussed.

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The current study explored the relations among rape myths, attitudes toward rape victims, perceived social support, sex role, and social reactions in a male undergraduate sample (N = 205). Males who have provided support to a sexual assault victim were compared to those who have not provided support to a sexual assault victim on several measures. Social reactions of those who have provided support to a sexual assault victim were compared to hypothetical reactions provided by individuals who have not previously provided support. Results indicated that rape related attitudes and beliefs did not differ between those who have and have not provided support to a sexual assault victim. In addition, individuals who were responding to a hypothetical situation reported that they would provide more positive social support than individuals who were responding to an actual situation. Implications for clinical work and future research in this area are discussed.

Denna studie inriktar sig på att undersöka hur våldtäktsmyter används i svenska nyhetsartiklar. Mer specifikt undersöks sex stycken nyhetsartiklar varav tre kommer från morgontidningen Dagens Nyheter, respektive tre från kvällstidningen Expressen. Med en kritisk diskursanalys som både teori och metod möjliggör det att analyserar språket på djupet, och hitta underliggande strukturer, som våldtäktsmyter faktiskt är. Det teoretiska ramverket för studien utgår från teorin om kritisk diskursanalys, våldtäktsmyter, offerskapande och medielogik.   För att kunna finna underliggande strukturer och våldtäktsmyter användes olika analysverktyg hämtade från kritisk diskursanalys. Resultatet av denna studie visar att nyhetsartiklarnas manifesta budskap är öppna och feministiska. Underliggande och vid en mer djupgående läsning kan våldtäktsmyter avläsas i den fundamentala grunden. / This study targets how rape myths are used in Swedish news articles. Specifically, it examines three news articles from the morning paper “Dagens Nyheter” as well as three news articles from the evening paper “Expressen”. With a critical discourse analysis we found opportunity for theoretical and methodical analyses of news articles´ linguistics along with underlying structures of such rape myths. The theoretical framework for this study is based on the theory of critical discourse analysis, rape myths, victimization and media logic.   To find underlying structures and rape myths we used several analysis methods from critical discourse analysis. The result of this study shows that the news articles’ manifest messages as open and based on feminism values. However, through deeper interpretation, it is evident that rape myths are continuously used as the fundamental directive.

本研究採用問卷調查法探討網路色情是否會影響青少年對強暴迷思的接受程度，以及對強暴被害人與強暴犯的態度，共訪問1,688位高中學生。 研究結果發現，網路色情的收視頻率，是預測青少年對強暴迷思的接受程度、認為強暴被害人的受傷程度和對強暴犯判刑的顯著變項，愈常收看網路色情的青少年，其接受強暴迷思的程度愈高，且愈傾向認為強暴被害人並未受到很大的傷害，並認為對強暴犯的判刑不需太重。 / This study examines the effects of Internet pornography on adolescents’ acceptance of rape myths, and their attitude towards rape victims and rapists. Data used for this study came from a survey of 1,668 high school students in Taipei, Taiwan. Results of the study show that exposure to Internet pornography were significantly related to increased acceptance of rape myths, decreased perception of rape victim sufferings, and reduced recommended prison terms to rapists.