Rape myth

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The term rape myth (. Engl rape myth ) designates the trivialization of sexual violence : He summarized states that such. B. Rape victims "naturally" or wanted to be overpowered by the perpetrator voluntarily and thus rape as a violent crime could not even exist. In this way, the myth excuses the perpetrators and blames the victims ("perpetrator-victim reversal" or victim blaming ).

The acceptance of rape myths is strongly related to misogynistic attitudes.

Definition and conceptual history

The term was coined in 1980 by the American social psychologist Martha R. Burt. In her original publication, she defined him as "prejudiced, stereotyped, or misconceptions about rape, rape victims, and rapists" . According to Gerd Bohner, this means “descriptive or prescriptive beliefs about rape (ie about causes, context, consequences, perpetrators, victims and their indication) that serve to deny, play down or justify sexual violence by men against women”.

Social origin

Rape myths are based on a socially established understanding of different male and female sexualities. According to this understanding, men are assumed to be instinctual and women are required to control their own and male sexual activity. Rape myths are socially established opinions on rape crimes that can be traced back to socio-culturally traditional moral norms, to biological-deterministic images of human beings or to legally inadequate ideas. In the past, these ideas were supported by scientific studies based on knowledge at the time. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, for example, attributed a “latent masochistic tendency” to women and saw in the sexuality of men “an admixture of aggression, of a tendency to overwhelm, the biological significance of which is likely to lie in the necessity, the resistance of the sexual object even more differently than through advertising to overcome".

Nourishing assumptions

Rape myths are based on several partially statistically refuted assumptions:

  • Women actually want to be raped; they enjoy the rape: a woman who says 'no' is not serious.
  • A woman, anatomically speaking, cannot be raped against her will; so only women who 'play along' can be raped.
  • Women unjustly accuse a man of rape, especially if he is insufficiently attached to them.
  • Men who commit rape are ill, sexually starved, or have a particularly strong drive for other reasons.
  • Sexual abuse is exceptional and, as such, rare.
  • The perpetrator is sick or disturbed in some way.
  • The perpetrator comes from social circles from which 'something like that' can be expected.
  • Children and adolescents want sexual contact with adults and behave seductively or at least recklessly.
  • The victims are always female, the perpetrators always male.

Acceptance of rape myths

Myths about sexual violence are accepted by both men and women; but more common by men. Gerd Bohner discovered a causal connection between the acceptance of rape myths and the self-reported rape propensity of men.

consequences

Rape myths play down the extent of sexual violence and its consequences, negate the act itself, excuse the perpetrator's behavior and accuse the victim of not behaving in accordance with social norms. They aim to break the victim's integrity and to legitimize acts of sexual violence. Rape myths can even blame the victim for the rape. The term rape culture is also used in this context . The existence of the myths also reduces the victims' credibility in the judiciary.

See also

literature

  • Beatrice Weber: The social reality construction of rape myths and the relation to reality , Verlag für Polizeiwiss., 2010, ISBN 978-3-86676-130-8 .
  • Janet Anderson: Rape Myths. In: Research and Advocacy Digest. May 2007 full text (English)
  • University of Minnesota Duluth: List of Rape Myths. Sociology of Rape. Full text (English)
  • Anette Rieber: Rape Myths 2004. Excuse the perpetrators? An empirical study on the degree of rape myth acceptance in 2004 , 2004 ISBN 978-3-86676-130-8 .
  • Nicola Brosi: Study of the acceptance of rape myths in different population groups. Dissertation of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich 2004. Full text (German)
  • Gerd Bohner: Rape myths: socio-psychological investigations into offender relieving and victim-hostile beliefs in the area of ​​sexual violence. Verlag Empirische Pädagogik, Landau 1998, ISBN 3-931147-62-2 .
  • Diana EH Russell: Making Violence Sexy: Feminist Views on Pornography. Teacher Collage Press, New York 1993.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ KA Lonsway, LF Fitzgerald: Attitudinal antecedents of rape myth acceptance: A theoretical and empirical reexamination. In: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . 68, No. 4, April 1995, pp. 704-711. doi: 10.1037 / 0022-3514.68.4.704
  2. ^ Martha R. Burth: Cultural myths and supports for rape. In: Journal of Personality and social Psychology. Volume 38, 1980, pp. 217-230. PDF ( Memento from May 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Gerd Bohner: Rape myths - social psychological investigations into offender-relieving and victim-hostile beliefs in the area of ​​sexual violence. Landau 1998, p. 14.
  4. ^ Luise Greuel : Police interrogation of raped women. Psychologie-Verl.-Union, Weinheim 1993, ISBN 3-621-27162-7 , p. 63.
  5. ^ Diana EH Russell: Making Violence Sexy: Feminist Views on Pornography. Teacher Collage Press, New York 1993.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g Maren Kolshorn, Ulrike Brockhaus: Myths about sexual violence. In: Dirk Bange, Wilhelm Körner (Hrsg.): Concise dictionary of sexual abuse. Göttingen 2002, pp. 373-379.
  7. ↑ a b c d Herbert Selg: About the effects of violent pornography. In: Dane, Schmidt (ed.): Women and men. Fischer, Frankfurt 1990, ISBN 3-596-10149-2 , pp. 138-139.
  8. ↑ Gert Bohner, M. Reinhard, S. Rutz, S. Sturm, B. Kerschbaum, D. Effler: Rape myths as neutralizing cognitions: Evidence for a causal impact of anti-victim attitudes on men's self-reported likelihood of raping. In: European Journal of Social Psychology , 28, 1998, pp. 257-268.
  9. ↑ Susanne Heynen: Vergewaltigt - the meaning of subjective theories for coping processes after rape. Juventa, Weinheim 2000, ISBN 3-7799-1407-7 , p. 20.