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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.

This chapter draws on feminist theorizing on rape culture and victim blaming, and proposes a concept, racialized victim blaming, as a useful tool for understanding discourse on state violence.

The concept of racialized victim blaming is applied to historically analyze the genesis of the carceral state, and deconstruct public debates on police shootings and immigration crises.

This chapter argues that racialized victim blaming is used as a discursive tool to legitimize and mystify state violence projects. Officials and the media use racialized logics and narratives to blame the victims of state violence for their own suffering, justifying continued or increased state violence.

The concept of victim blaming is most often associated with violence against women. Here I demonstrate that victim blaming is also a useful tool for understanding state violence, particularly when attention is given to the place of racializing narratives.

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 investigates the impact that perpetrator coercion type, victim resistance type and respondent gender have on attributions of blame in a hypothetical child sexual abuse case. A total of 366 respondents read a hypothetical scenario describing the sexual assault of a 14‐year‐old girl by a 39‐year‐old man, before completing 21 attribution items relating to victim blame, perpetrator blame, the blaming of the victim's (non‐offending) parents, and assault severity. Overall, men judged the assault more serious when the perpetrator used physical force as opposed to verbal threat or misrepresented play as a coercive act. Men also deemed the victim's non‐offending parents more culpable when the victim offered no resistance, rather than physical or verbal resistance. Women judged the assault equally severe regardless of coercion type, although they did rate the victim's family more culpable when the victim offered verbal rather than physical resistance. Implications and ideas for future work are discussed.

The disclosure of private images with the intent of causing distress is often described as “revenge pornography”. In the UK, this newly legislated crime has received a high level of media attention following several high profile cases, however, there is a paucity of research in this area. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In total, 168 adults (UK general public) completed an online survey using a vignette approach. Views of the influence of perpetrator-victim relationship length and reason for termination were considered alongside perception of an offence, the necessity of police intervention, what extent revenge pornography creates psychological harm in victims, and victim blaming.

Perpetrator-victim relationship length and reason for relationship breakdown did not influence perceptions of victim blame. Participants believed that the situation described in the vignettes was likely to be an offence, and that police intervention is somewhat necessary. Participants believed that the scenario was “very likely” to create fear, and “moderately likely” to create psychological/mental harm in victims. In line with the literature relating to stalking and sexual assault, men blamed the victim significantly more than women. Furthermore, women rated police intervention as significantly more necessary than men.

The public are recognising that revenge pornography is an offence, with consequences being fear and psychological harm, showing an awareness of the impact on victims. However, there are sex differences in the perceptions of revenge pornography and victim blaming, and this could be addressed by raising awareness of this crime. This research, which highlights that the public are aware of some of the harm caused, may encourage victims in coming forward to report such a crime.

There is a paucity of research into revenge pornography, and this study is one of the first in this area.

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.

Health promotion can fall into a victim blaming approach and put social pressure on particular students who could be marginalized due to their personal, economical, cultural, social or ethnic characteristics, for example, students who are obese, drug users or HIV carriers. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss ways in which the design of the newly reformed Cyprus Health Education Curriculum (CHEC) attempted to protect learners from victim blaming.

The paper describes and reflects on the learning objectives, teaching methods and teaching activities of the CHEC.

The paper gives specific examples of how the design of the CHEC attempts to ensure that the curriculum does not promote victim blaming. It describes learning objectives, content, suggested teaching methods and activities from three thematic areas of the curriculum which are particularly susceptible to victim blaming: “food and health”, “emotional health” and “family planning, sexual and reproductive health”. It discusses how the design of the CHEC attempts to encourage educators to address the underlying social and environmental determinants of health and thus avoid stigmatization.

The paper can be useful for curriculum designers and school educators. It describes how the design of a health education curriculum and health education lessons can refrain from burdening the individual with total personal responsibility for health behaviour and lifestyle.

Understanding and implementing the basic learning themes and objectives of the CHEC has social and community implications. It promotes collective responsibility, emphasizing a non-blaming and community approach. The design of the CHEC challenges the idea of free choice, acknowledges the social determinants of health and promotes students’ empowerment as active members of society.

The originality of this paper lies in the description and reflection of the design of the first health education curriculum in Cyprus, which attempts to secure learners from victim blaming in its implementation. The aspects of the design of the CHEC described in this paper may be applicable to other European countries.

Many factors have been identified as being responsible for increasing the vulnerability of people with learning difficulties to sexual abuse. However, there has not been a great deal of debate about the term ‘vulnerability’. Here, an argument is developed that puts forward the case for a social model approach to understanding vulnerability, which avoids a focus on victim characteristics.

What effect does strategic frame adaptation have on movement continuation and popularity? Using a comprehensive online dataset from three North American cities, we show how SlutWalk’s continuous strategic adaptation of frames in response to criticisms and changing political and social climates has influenced its popularity over the past three years. SlutWalk’s initial “Shame-Blame” and “Slut Celebration” frames conveyed powerful messages that catalyzed protests and generated outrage mostly from young feminists during its formative phase. However, meanings of the term “slut” varied widely across racial, cultural, and generational contexts, causing the “Slut Celebration” frame to be problematic for some micro-cohorts of feminists and leading to a decline in protest participation after initial enthusiasm waned. The campaign responded to the criticisms by minimizing the use of the word “slut” and emphasizing the more transnationally resonant “Shame-Blame” and “Pro-sex, Pro-consent frames,” resulting in increased participation and continued prominence of the SlutWalk across North America.

This two‐part research project examines self‐serving attributions by employees in reaction to supervisor's negative interpersonal behaviors in the workplace. The first study (N = 289) examined internal and external attributions in reaction to negative supervisor's behaviors compared to positive behaviors, and the moderating effect of organizational empowerment. The respondents attributed positive behaviors internally and negative behaviors externally. However, empowerment did not affect the attributions. The second study (N = 252,) examined the relationship of attributions of blame to the victim in relation to being the victim of negative behaviors as compared to being the perpetrator. Again, negative supervisor's behaviors were related to attribution of blame to factors external to the victim. However, the employee's own negative behaviors were positively related to attribution of blame to the victim.