engleski

Factors Associated with Acceptance of Violence Against Women and Rape Myths

With global rising of social movements empowering women to speak about sexual violence and sexual harassment, regional and national responses are taking place. In 2021 Balkan version of the Me Too movement started with the slogan “I didn’t ask for it”. The general public is exposed to more information on different types of violence against women, manifestations of victim blaming and other types of myths about violence against women. At the same time, the rise of right-wing political ideologies and extremist movements in Europe which, among others, advocate reduction of women’s rights and status pose a new challenge. In that context, a cross-sectional study was conducted among quota sample of Croatian residents (N=600) with primary objectives to (1) assess the acceptance of violence against women myths and specifically rape myths, and to (2) determine types of sexism and political ideologies as predictors of their acceptance. Results showed that the majority of respondents does not accept violence against women and rape myths, however men are, compared to women, more prone to accept most of them. Some myths, especially those about rape, have a significant share of acceptance, which goes as high as 30% among male respondents. The strongest predictor of both types of myths acceptance was traditional sexism, while right-wing authoritarianism was the strongest predictor among political ideologies. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses have led us to some interesting conclusions that shift the established focus in explaining beliefs in myths about gender-based violence.

violence against women myths ; rape myths ; sexism ; political ideologies

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