Survey Finds That College Women Who Were Raped Often Blame Themselves

A new study by Sapana D. Donde, a Dean’s Post-Doctoral Fellow in Neuroscience and Mental Health in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin, finds that many college women who have been victims of rape and sexual assault blame themselves for what happened to them.

Dr. Donde interviewed a large group of women who had been raped in college. More than 60 percent of these women assigned at least some of the blame to themselves. More than half of the respondents said the rapist was “not at all” to blame and none of the respondents said the rapist was “totally” to blame.

Dr. Donde, who earned a Ph.D. at George Washington University, concludes that “these findings indicate a significant departure from previous studies in how college women attribute blame for experiences of sexual assault and merit further study to determine whether trends in attributions of blame have indeed shifted.”

The article, “College Women’s Attributions of Blame for Experiences of Sexual Assault,” was published on the website of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. It may be accessed here.