Factors predicting the blaming of victims of physical child abuse or rape.

Examined factors that were hypothesized to predict victim blame in the case of physical child abuse and in the case of rape. Questionnaires were completed by 897 college students. Results suggest that the defensive attribution hypothesis (particularly the notion of harm avoidance motives) was consistent with the current findings. In contrast, just-world theory was not supported. Victim blame in child abuse and victim blame in rape were predicted by similar factors. The factors that best predicted victim blame were empathy, locus of control, and prior physical abuse. Personal similarity was a significant predictor for both child blame and rape victim blame. Just-world beliefs had virtually no predictive power when other factors were taken into consideration. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)