Perceptions of date rape on a college campus

The occurrences and attitudes about date rape were surveyed at a small Midwestern college campus. They were measured through a vignette in which a date rape occurred, and a survey which contained demographic questions, true/false and Likert scale items. The Likert items were divided into three types: 1) nine questions a date rapist would strongly agree with (male initiator items); 2) nine questions someone sophisticated about rape would strongly agree with (egalitarian items); and 3) three neutral questions (bystander items). From these items a male-initiator and egalitarian score was derived for each S. T-test results indicate that male Ss had a higher male-initiator score than female Ss, 1(329) = 2.04, a \u3c .001, while female Ss had a higher egalitarian score than male Ss, t(328) = 1.18, a\u3c .001. Pearson correlations also revealed a significant negative relationship between male-initiator and egalitarian scores, r = -.61, p_\u3c .001; and a significant positive relationship between the age of the Ss and their egalitarian score, r = .14, p.= .006. This study advocates the need to dispel traditional myths concerning sex roles and date rape through rape awareness and open communication