Attitudes and empathy towards rape and its victims using an awareness and prevention program.

Abstract

Rape can occur on a college campus as often as it does in any community. In order to increase students' awareness of rape, many colleges are adopting awareness and prevention programs. In this study 100 undergraduate college student volunteers (50 males and 50 females) completed two questionnaires. The Attitudes Toward Rape Questionnaire (ATR) (Barnett & Feild, 1977) and Rape Empathy Scale (RES) (Deitz, Blackwell, Daley, & Bentley, 1982) are concerned with attitudes and empathy towards rape, rapists, and rape victims. Students also completed the Internal, Powerful Others, and Chance Scales (IPC) (Levenson, 1974), which measure locus of control. Half of the subjects were presented with a rape awareness and prevention program the other half served as a control group. Four weeks later both groups were retested. Gender, religiosity, and acquaintance with rape victims served as dependent variables. Males were significantly less empathic and sensitive on their attitudes of rape, rapists, and rape victims, as measured by the ATR and RES respectively. However, no significant differences were due to treatment effects, personal acquaintance with a victim, and religiosity. The overall results of this study indicate a significantly different view between males and females concerning the topic of rape. Yet, this study did not show any difference between those exposed to a rape awareness and prevention program and those in a control group. Suggestions for further research in the area of rape awareness are given.