Sexual Assault Victims Face A Penalty For Adjacent Consent

Authors:

Abstract: Across ten studies (n = 10,158), we show that female victims of sexual assault are blamed more and seen as less morally virtuous if their assault followed voluntary sexual intimacy, and identify a novel psychological mechanism through which such “adjacent consent” undermines support for victims. When a woman who provided no consent whatsoever is assaulted, people tend to see her as more moral than if she were not victimized (the “Virtuous Victim Effect”)—yet people do not extend the same moral elevation to victims whose assault followed consensual sexual activity. Finally, we identify a potential real-world consequence of adjacent consent. Drawing on survey data from over 180,000 students across 33 U.S. universities, we find evidence that victims are less likely to report their sexual assaults in cases involving adjacent consent.

Track: MORAL

Keywords: Sexual assault, victim blaming, consent, reporting