Evaluator versus Target Characteristics: What Impacts Blame‐Attribution in Inter‐ and Intra‐ethnic Sexual Violence?

ABSTRACT Research on blame‐attribution in cases of rape remains scarce despite existing theories on sexual violence, ethnosexual boundaries and intergroup evaluations. This paucity is amplified when considering the influence of victim and perpetrator ethnicity, as well as evaluator identity (e.g. ethnicity, gender, political identification) on responses to rape. Using a 2 x 2 factorial experiment, I examine how rape blame‐attribution differs depending on the ethnic identities of the victim, perpetrator and evaluator. Contrary to predictions from theories of ethnosexual crossings, victim and perpetrator ethnicity do not significantly influence blame. In contrast, evaluator characteristics—in particular, gender, ethnicity and political identification—significantly affect how blame is assigned for rape, with political identification emerging as an especially strong predictor. These findings have important implications for research on rape perception, intergroup evaluations and bias, and point to directions for future work on the role of target and evaluator identity in rape.