COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS ABOUT RAPE AMONG MALE AND FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Abstract
Background: Rape and other forms of violence against women have been reported to be common inPakistan, and police is often reluctant to register a rape complaint. We assessed and compared theattitudes and perceptions of male and female university students towards rape of females by males.Methods: A cross-sectional survey with convenience sampling was conducted among the male andfemale students of Quide-e-Azam University, Islamabad. A structured, self-administered, anonymousand pre-tested questionnaire was used with close-ended questions. Students were asked about theirattitudes and beliefs regarding characteristics of the female rape victims, male perpetrators and contextsin which this type of violence is more or less likely. Interviewers approached conveniently-selectedparticipants and explained the objectives of the survey, while emphasising voluntary participation inthis study. Data was analysed for frequencies and counts, while Chi-square test was used to for pairwise comparisons between male and female students with STATA 9. Results: Five hundred and fourstudents, 247 male and 257 female, completed the questionnaire. Male students were more likely tobelieve that strong character of a woman would ostensibly shield her from the advances of a rapist; onlyyoung and pretty women get raped; woman’s willingness is present in rape. About 25% of students alsobelieved that a raped woman is not worthy of becoming another man’s wife. One third of studentsbelieved that there could be no rape in marital context. Conclusion: Rape myths were common in oureducated study respondents with significant gender differences. Attitudes and beliefs blaming thefemale victim of rape were more common in males.Keywords: Rape, Attitudes, University Students, PakistanReferences
MacDonald R. Time to talk about rape. BMJ 2000; 321:1034-5.
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). State of world
population 2004. New York: UNFPA;2004.p. 31.
Human Rights Watch (HRW). World report 2005. New York:
HRW;2005. p. 315.
Ahmad K. Public protests after rape in Pakistani hospital. Lancet
;354(9179):659.
Collett BJ, Cordle CJ, Stewart CR, Jagger C. A comparative
study of women with chronic pelvic pain, chronic nonpelvic pain
and those with no history of pain attending general practitioners.
Br J Obstet Gynaecol. 1998;105(1):87–92.
Coker AL, Smith PH, Bethea L, King MR, McKeown RE.
Physical health consequences of physical and psychological
intimate partner violence. Arch Fam Med 2000;9:451–7.
Holmes MM, Resnick HS, Kilpatrick DG, Best CL. Rape-related
pregnancy: estimates and descriptive characteristics from a
national sample of women. Am J Obstet Gynecol 1996;75:320–
discussion 324–5.
Burt M. Cultural myths and support for rape. J Pers Soc Psychol
;38:217–30.
Lonsway KA, Fitzgerald LF. Rape myths: In review. Psychol
Women Q. 1994;18:133–64.
Lee J, Pomeroy EC, Yoo SK, Rheinboldt KT. Attitudes Toward
Rape: A Comparison Between Asian and Caucasian College
Students. Violence Against Women. 2005;11(2):177–96.
Greene DM, Navarro RL. Situation-specific assertiveness in
the epidemiology of sexual victimization among university
women: A prospective path analysis. Psychol Women Q
;22:589–604.
Abbey A, Ross LT, McDuffie D, McAuslan P. Alcohol and
dating risk factors for sexual assault among college women.
Psychol Women Q 1996;20:147–69.
Burt MR. Cultural myths and support for rape. J Pers Soc
Psychol 1980;18:217–30.
Burt MR, Albin RS. Rape myths, rape definitions, and
probability of conviction. J Appl Soc Psychol 1981;11:212–30.
Bohner G, Danner UN, Siebler F, Samson GB. Rape myth
acceptance and judgments of vulnerability to sexual assault: An
internet experiment. Exp Psychol 2002;49(4):257–69.
Shaikh MA. Domestic violence against women – perspective
from Pakistan. J Pak Med Assoc 2000;50:312–4.
Shaikh MA. Is domestic violence endemic in Pakistan?:
perspective from Pakistani wives. Pak J Med Sci 2003;19:23–8.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad is an OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL which means that all content is FREELY available without charge to all users whether registered with the journal or not. The work published by J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad is licensed and distributed under the creative commons License CC BY ND Attribution-NoDerivs. Material printed in this journal is OPEN to access, and are FREE for use in academic and research work with proper citation. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad accepts only original material for publication with the understanding that except for abstracts, no part of the data has been published or will be submitted for publication elsewhere before appearing in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. The Editorial Board of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of material printed in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. However, conclusions and statements expressed are views of the authors and do not reflect the opinion/policy of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad or the Editorial Board.
USERS are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
AUTHORS retain the rights of free downloading/unlimited e-print of full text and sharing/disseminating the article without any restriction, by any means including twitter, scholarly collaboration networks such as ResearchGate, Academia.eu, and social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and any other professional or academic networking site.