Attitudes; Teacher Behavior IDENTIFIERS Attitudes Toward Women Scale; *Blame

Sixty-eight teachers and 62 school psychologists from California and Tennessee were compared on attributions of behavioral and characterological blame to individuals involved in a hypothetical case of father-daughter incest. A child-victim responded in an encouraging, passive, or resistant manner to her father's sexual advances, and Attitudes toward Women Scale (AWS) scores were assessed for prediction of blame. Respondents ' confidence that child sexual maltreatment (CSM) occurred in the hypothetical case, their beliefs regarding its likelihood, and their probability of reporting it were assessed along with demographic characteristics, and training, education and involvement in CSM. Teachers and psychologists assigned the majority of both types of blame to the father; however, both groups also blamed the child. Professional position nor victim response affected blame attributed to the child, despit