NCJ Number
145376
Journal
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Dated: (1993) Pages: 61-74
Date Published
1993
Length
14 pages
Annotation
A sample of 303 psychologists, most of whom were involved in clinical work and had doctorates, answered a survey using 24 vignette situations in which sex of victim and perpetrator, age of victim, and victim response were experimentally controlled in a description of sexual interaction between an adult and a child.
Abstract
The results showed that, in general, psychologists assigned low responsibility to the child victim and high responsibility to the adult perpetrator. They indicated a high likelihood of reporting their case description to child protective service agencies and other appropriate authorities. Attribution of responsibility to the victim, the representative nature of the sexual interaction described in the vignette, and perception of the child's response were all influenced by the sex of the perpetrator, age of the victim, and the victim's response. The respondents tended to assign more responsibility to older victims and to those who responded to the adult's advances in an encouraging manner. The impact of victim response on the psychologists' perception of the vignette is consistent with results of previous studies. 22 references