“It’s Your Own Fault”: Factors Influencing Victim Blaming

Abstract

This study examined the association between victimization and victim blaming using a sample of n = 142 participants in a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) with the influence of subject gender, victim stereotyping level, threat level, and victim gender for victim blaming. Belief in a just world was included in the model as a covariate. Mediation analyses were conducted with the degree of identifiability with the victim and attitudes toward traditional role models as explanatory approaches. In addition, acceptance of rape myths was considered. The GLMM analyses suggest that victim blaming by male subjects was significantly higher on average than by female subjects when all other predictors were held constant. As an explanatory approach for these effects of the subjects’ gender on victim blaming, partial mediation was found with the degree of identification with the victim as a mediator. No main effects were found for the other influencing factors, but only a statistically significant three-way interaction. This indicates a differential effect of the level of stereotyping for male and female victims in conditions that end in high threat. The finding of the main effect of subjects’ gender seems to be particularly important for the legal system, as it appears to make a difference in who is asked in terms of victim blameworthiness. This finding highlights the importance of considering a victim’s personal characteristics and the need for future research with an additional focus on the characteristics of the sentencers to help clarify potential biases.