She Asked for It? Descriptions of Victims' Behaviors Are Associated With Sentencing in Norwegian Rape Trials.

Abstract

Feminist theorists have long argued that rape myths contribute to normalizing sexual assault, through belittling and denying rape victims' claims. This study examines whether descriptions of victims' behaviors are associated with sentencing in rape trials. A total of 2054 Norwegian court decisions from 2013 to 2023 in judicial records were screened. Fifty-one of these included descriptions of the victims' behavior as operationalized by a subscale of the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale called "She Asked For It" (IRMAS-SAFI; type of clothing, going to a room alone with a guy at a party, previous sexual behavior, saying no unclearly, and kissing). Matching cases without such descriptions were then selected, resulting in a total sample of 102 court decisions. In addition, a randomly selected comparison group (n = 51) was included for robustness analysis. Results revealed that defendants who had attacked a victim in the IRMAS-SAFI group were sentenced to fewer months in prison (M = 25.3, SD = 20.9) than defendants from the comparison group (M = 41.7, SD = 13.3). This type of description of victims' behavior was significantly associated with shorter prison sentences when controlling for medical evidence, age of the defendant, and use of violence. The results indicate that implementing measures to reduce the influence of rape myths on judges' evaluations in rape trials could lead to fairer court decisions.