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This study aims to investigate the sexual preference effect in depicted male sexual assault. Consistent with Davies et al., the study seeks to predict that males are more blaming toward gay victims of male perpetrators and heterosexual victims of female perpetrators, while females would not blame the victim.

In total, 200 participants read a hypothetical scenario depicting a case of the non‐consensual touching of an adult male, and then completed a victim blame scale.

Analysis of variance confirmed predictions. Results are discussed in relation to gender beliefs and homophobia. Suggestions for future work are proposed.

This study confirms the existence of the sexual preference effect in attributions toward male victims of sexual assault utilising a scenario depicting non‐consensual touching. These findings extend current knowledge in this growing area.

This study seeks to examine whether blame and fault assigned to victims and perpetrators in a hypothetical sexual violence case are distinct conceptually, and whether they are affected by gender of participant, perpetrator and victim.

Participants read an incident of either female or male rape, perpetrated by either a female or a male, and assigned attributions of blame and fault to both victims and perpetrators. Participants also completed Burt's Rape Myth Acceptance Scale.

Findings showed that none of the independent variables had any effect on victim attributions of blame and fault, only affecting blame and fault assigned to perpetrators. Perpetrators of male victim rape were assigned more blame than perpetrators of female victim rape. In terms of fault: male participants reduced the amount of fault that they attributed to female perpetrators relative to male perpetrators; and female participants increased the amount of fault that they attributed to female perpetrators relative to male perpetrators. In addition, greater endorsement of traditional sex‐role attitudes and rape myths was associated with higher rape victim blame.

Findings are discussed in relation to social norms, social categorisation theory and differential focus of specific rape victim vs rape victims in general.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the voluntary sector meets male rape victims’ needs in England, UK. The author’s contribution represents an attempt to piece together some of the voluntary sector’s responses to male rape victims in England, UK and examine whether they meet male rape victims’ needs.

The author draws on data collected from semi-structured interviews and qualitative questionnaires with male rape counsellors, therapists and voluntary agency caseworkers (n=70).

The findings reveal nuanced themes that have been overlooked in the existing literature of male rape: first, male rape victims are not given a choice of their voluntary agency practitioner (regarding gender) to serve them; second, there is no specific training on male rape in voluntary agencies; third, the impact of limited resources and funding in the voluntary sector means that many male rape victims’ needs are unmet; and finally, there is ageism and discrimination in some voluntary agencies, whereby male rape victims are prioritised in terms of their age.

Methodologically, the author’s sample size was not considerably large (n=70), making it difficult to generalise the findings to all voluntary agency practitioners in a British context.

At a time of scarce funding and scant resources for the third sector, the impact of limited resources and funding in the voluntary sector could mean that male rape victims may not receive proper care and treatment. Budget cuts in the third sector are problematic, in that voluntary agencies may be unable to get access to robust training programs for male rape or to resources that can help shape and develop the ways in which they serve male rape victims. The needs of male rape victims, therefore, are unlikely to be met at the local, regional and national levels.

Some practitioners are misinformed about male rape and do not have the tools to be able to adequately and efficiently handle male rape victims. Not only can their lack of understanding of male rape worsen male rape victims’ trauma through inappropriate ways of handling them, but also the practitioners may implicitly reinforce male rape myths, such as “male rape is solely a homosexual issue” or “men cannot be raped”.

Whilst previous contributions have recognised the third sector’s responses to female rape victims, little work has been done to identify their treatment of male rape victims. The author attempts to fill some of this lacuna. In particular, The author draws attention to some of the issues and dilemmas that arise when voluntary agencies provide services for male victims of rape. The author’s concern is that many male rape victims’ needs may be neglected or ignored because of the rise in neoliberalism, as there appears to be a financial meltdown in the voluntary sector.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether indicating victims of sexual attacks actively resisted their attacker or froze during their assault affected perceptions of victim blame, perpetrator blame and seriousness of the crime. We also tested whether victim and perpetrator gender or participants’ rape myth endorsement moderated the outcomes.

This study was a cross-sectional, vignette survey study with a 2 × 2 between-participants experimental design. Participants read a mock police report describing an alleged rape with a female or male victim who either resisted or froze, while perpetrator gender was adjusted heteronormatively.

Freezing and male victims were blamed more than resisting and female victims. Perpetrators were blamed more when the victim resisted, but male and female perpetrators were blamed equally. Seriousness of the crime was higher for male perpetrators and when the victim resisted. Female, but not male, rape myth acceptance moderated the relationship between victim behaviour and outcome variables.

This study highlights the influence of expectations about victim behaviour on perceptions of rape victims and the pervasive influence of rape myths when evaluating female rape victims. The data is drawn from the German border region of the Netherlands, which is an especially valuable population given the evolving legal definitions of rape in both countries.

Revenge pornography is a growing risk among adolescents and young adults. Often stemming from sexting, some victims of revenge pornography report experiencing victim-blame similar to that accompanying the reporting of rape. The purpose of this paper is to explore the assumptions that underlie attributions of victim-blame, with a focus on perpetrator and victim responsibility, as well as gendered assumptions surrounding sexting.

A total of 222 UK university students (111 male, 111 females) read one of two versions of a hypothetical revenge pornography scenario, one involving a male victim of a female perpetrator, the other a female victim of a male perpetrator. They then responded to an open-ended question regarding responsibility.

Qualitative content analysis of these responses identified three inter-related themes: the victim’s behaviour, mitigating victim responsibility and minimising the behaviour.

The majority of participants in this study attributed at least some responsibility to the victims of revenge pornography depicted in the scenarios. Sex of the victim played a less important role than assumptions around sexting.

The study suggests that victim-blame is linked to the consent implied by sharing intimate images with a partner, but is also mitigated by the normative nature of this relationship practice. There was some evidence that the experience of male victims of revenge pornography is trivialised. These findings have implications for e-safety and victim support.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how male and female rape is scripted.

In total, 100 (50 male, 50 female) participants were asked to write down in their own words what they considered to be the typical rape when the victim was either an adult male or female.

Results revealed that men's and women's rape scripts did not dramatically differ, though several differences were revealed between male and female rape scripting, focussing around the gender stereotypes of men verses women.

Results are discussed in relation to gender role stereotyping and wider implications are considered.

While awareness of sexual assaults on college campuses has increased, the majority of efforts to address it are focused on female victims. The relative neglect of male victims may be due in part to problematic rape myths that suggest men cannot be sexually assaulted, especially by women. The purpose of this paper is to compare rates of different types of sexual assault between male and female undergraduates, and explore the relationship between acceptance of traditional rape myths focused on female victims, and rape myths surrounding male victims.

Students at a mid-sized university in Pennsylvania (n=526) answered an online questionnaire about their own experiences of sexual assault since coming to college, as well as their endorsement of male and female rape myths.

While women experienced more sexual assault overall, men were just as likely to have experienced rape (i.e. forced penetration) or attempted rape. Acceptance of male and female rape myths was significantly correlated and men were more likely than women to endorse both. Participants were also more likely to endorse female than male rape myths.

By analyzing sexual assaults in terms of distinct behaviors instead of one composite score, the authors can get a more nuanced picture of how men and women experience assault.

Campus-based efforts to address sexual assault need to be aware that male students also experience assault and that myths surrounding men as victims may impede their ability to access services.

This paper contributes to our knowledge of a relatively understudied topic: undergraduate male victims of sexual assault.

Assumptions are often made that women police officers will respond more sympathetically to rape complainants than their male colleagues. In the research study presented here, 48 women complainants of rape and sexual assault expressed their views of the extent to which they considered the gender of the interviewing officer to be important and commented on the ways in which the men and women involved with their case interacted with them. The results showed that, overall, gender per se was not the determining factor of complainant satisfaction. Professionalism, warmth and sensitivity were the qualities most desired and these were not exclusively associated with gender. This suggests that not only is it possible for some male officers to be sensitive victim interviewers, but also that being female does not automatically denote possession of the key attributes required for victim interviewing. Some rape complainants, however, expressed a strong preference for women officers. This places the onus on the police not simply to provide a woman officer – the “any woman will do” scenario – but to ensure the availability of trained and experienced women and men officers.

This research examined some personal characteristics of victims of bullying in residential care for youth. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A total of 601 young people aged 11-21 from 22 residential facilities in Croatia completed an anonymous self-reported bullying questionnaire, the Big Five Personality Inventory, the Basic Empathy Scale and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale.

The results demonstrated that male and female victims lacked self-esteem, presented with neurotic personality traits and were likely to believe that bullying was just part of life in residential care. Female victims also presented with lower levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness, while male victims were young and had a history of victimisation during their previous placement, in school and at the beginning of their current placements.

Victims in care might benefit from programmes addressing their low self-esteem, high neuroticism and attitudes approving of bullying. Male residential groups should not accommodate young boys together with older boys. New residents who have a history of victimisation during their previous placement and in school should be supervised more intensively but in a manner that does not increase their perception of being victimised.

The present study is the first work that examines individual characteristics of bullying victims in care institutions for young people. As such, the study offers some insights on how to protect residential care bullying victims.

This paper aims to determine the level of online fraud offending within an Australian jurisdiction and how to best apply resources to combat it.

Empirical data were provided by an Australian law enforcement agency, and qualitative responses were obtained from the parties involved in the crimes themselves (the victims, the offenders and the nominated law enforcement agency).

Although there was variance between the ages of the online fraud victims, there was a slightly higher chance of an older member of the population falling victim to an offender than that of a younger person. The number of a particular gender reporting an instance of cybercrime in a given area can be higher if the total number of participants in that area was also high. Older victims were more likely to lose larger amounts of money to online fraud. Furthermore, it was found that when the non-gender identifiable data were removed, this increased to over 80 per cent.

Existing literature on online fraud and criminal offending generally focused on the quantitative aspects of measuring offending, which does not give an indication into the “why” component of the study: why are these offences being committed; why do these offenders pick particular victims; and why do the victims fall for such ruses? In this paper, the authors combined the qualitative responses obtained from those parties involved in the crimes themselves (the victims, the offenders and the nominated law enforcement agency) with a quantitative examination of the crime figures provided by an Australian law enforcement agency.