"You should have known better:" The Social Implications of Victim-Focused Sexual Assault Prevention Tips

Abstract

Common sexual assault prevention strategies emphasize potential victims’ responsibility to protect themselves. Using a feminist theoretical approach, the present research assesses the unintended, negative consequences that result from taking a victim-focused approach to sexual assault prevention. A between-participants experimental design was employed, whereby participants (N = 321) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) victim-focused prevention tips (n = 114); 2) perpetrator-focused prevention tips (n = 103); or 3) study tips (i.e., for control purposes; n = 104). Following prevention tip exposure, participants read a sexual assault vignette and completed measures of victim culpability, perpetrator culpability, and several related constructs. Results indicated that participants who received victim-focused prevention tips attributed significantly more blame to the victim based on the vignette than participants in the perpetrator-focused condition. Implications of the findings are discussed.