Introduction
Literature on sexual violence recently proliferated, primarily focusing on rising rates of sexual abuse, revealing how women are nine times as likely to be victims of rape (Number of Reported Forcible Rape Cases, 2022). However, they have yet to delve into the media’s involvement in the rising rates. This article aims to fill this gap. I investigate whether the increased portrayal of sexual violence in the media leads to the normalization, and therefore increase of sexual violence. Normalization enables the media to victim blame, portray the violence in a positive light, and make the crime seem permissible. Due to this, I ask, do the media’s depictions of sexual assault affect current views and actions? In answering this question, we can learn how the media impacts people’s views, and how the way we depict and discuss things matters. To do this, I conduct a literature review to highlight the main themes, findings, and contributions of the literature and suggest future avenues for research including a list experiment.
While literature covers most topics surrounding sexual assault and specific causes, there is a significant gap in how the broad media impacts it. I theorize the lack of literature is likely due to the difficulty in judging how an everyday consumption affects views and actions, nevertheless, I plan to uncover the truth. First, delving into the recent rise in depictions of sexual assault in the media. The spike in representation has negative impacts as oftentimes the perpetuator is not punished, which gives consumers ideas to “try out”, effectively normalizing the crime to make it seem harmless, and falsely portraying assault as a neutral action that helps men display their dominance. The normalization is not all bad however, as it also led to positive awareness of the problem. For example, news reports led to movements such as #MeToo, where victims of sexual assault found comfort in one another’s stories (Chicago Tribune, 2021).
I answer this question by overviewing the available literature and suggesting a list experiment. This survey asks for covariates and presents the respondent with several statements, where the respondent is then asked how many of the statements they agree with. I plan to use the responses to estimate the amount of United States citizens have neutral to positive views towards sexual violence. To do this, I create two groups, a control group that is given four statements, and a treatment group that is given the same four statements and one additional treatment statement. I then will average the amount of statements the groups agreed with and compare them; the higher the average of the treatment group has, the more respondents have neutral to positive views of sexual assault.
The experiment will function in the following fashion. A survey of citizens across the United States where the respondent is randomly assigned to the control group or treatment group. The respondent will be presented with four statements if they belong to the control group, or five if they belong to the treatment group (adding an additional treatment statement). I will take the average number of statements selected between groups to estimate the number of viewers with neutral to positive views towards sexual violence and utilize covariates to assess whether certain aspects of one’s life impact their views of sexual assault.
The rest of this article is structured as follows. First, I overview the literature on sexual violence: the increasing rates, depictions of it in the media and daily life, and consequences of assault. Next, I overview my methods of how I determine and answer the question, through a list experiment intended to assess the media’s impact on views with an analysis of different covariates impacts as well. I then explain how I expect the project to yield results where the less a perpetrator is punished in the media, the more likely the viewer is to have neutral to positive views of sexual assault, and vise versa, along with how certain covariates impact views.
Literature
Consequences of Depictions of Sexual Assault
With pornography becoming increasingly available and violent in recent years, most younger people who consume it develop the view that sexual violence is not abnormal or wrong (Davis, n.d.), causing it to become a societal norm. Television also often depicts sexual assault in both positive and negative manners and is not just portrayed in media rated X (pornographic) but in television rated R (18+) and MA (13+), further leading younger adolescents to view such material quite often, hence normalizing it to younger generations and creating a cycle. The normality of sexual assault is not all bad, however, as it has led to movements such as #MeToo, which supports victims of sexual assault by providing comfort in sharing similar stories, thus creating a safe space.
Yet the media has a much deeper role than just publicity and actions, influencing beliefs, policy, and jury convictions, (Aroustamian, 2020) with recent studies showing only 25 in 1,000 rapists are convicted, or two and a half percent (Criminal Justice System, n.d.).
Previous research also indicates the media publishes the issue of sexual assault for publicity since the incident is most commonly publicly revealed after the violator died. However, this news-based media is guilty of media framing as they promote rape myths, prejudicial, stereotyped, or false beliefs about rape, rapists, and rape victims, and through little reporting, inaccurate and inappropriate portrayals of sexual violence, and sympathizing with the perpetrator, the articles contribute to a negative attitude towards the victim, and a positive attitude towards the violator and sexual violence, leading to more future abuse (Suarez & Gadalla, 2010). Yet even with the publicity, the victim does not receive aid as the stories focus on the man and are written many years, and often decades, after the incident (Paasonen & Horeck, 2022).
More recently, a study conducted by Christopher J. Ferguson revealed that when teenagers are shown different versions of sexually violent encounters, boys and girls reacted oppositely. When shown scenes where the male was dominant, and the female did not fight the male, the girls were anxious while the boys were confident; when the female fought back, the emotions were flipped (Ferguson, 2012) clearly revealing the media institutionalized sexual violence in gender roles.
Increasing Rates of Sexual Assault
Previous literature from 2014, found that around one in six women are victims of attempted or completed rape and that nearly 70 percent of of victims are under the age of 35 (Scope of the Problem, n.d.), proving there is a recent phenomenon that is changing views. Considering figure 1, in 2021, the rate was about one in five women, or a 25 percent increase. More recent work reveals that in 2021 the forcible rate of rape dramatically rose to be higher than where it was over 35 years ago (Number of Reported Forcible Rape Cases, 2022). The increasing rates of violence against women clearly display a backwards notion of equality and respect between gender as it primarily traumatizes younger generations of girls. After researching important events from recent years, a logical conclusion is that the rise in media portrayals of sexual assault are to blame for the altered views of younger generations as they are more prone to utilize the media, therefore sexual assault becomes normalized to younger individuals.
Methods
In order to find previous literature, I utilized Google and Google Scholar to find news articles and scholarly research. I searched for keywords such as media, views, sexual violence, sexual assault, and rape to direct me. After I found quality works, I turned to Research Rabbit to forwardly cite more literature. I used this work to create reasoning for and to guide my paper by critically thinking and looking for gaps in the literature.
To determine views on sexual violence, I propose, for future research, a list experiment. A list experiment has a questionnaire design where respondents read a set of statements and respond with the number they agree with. List experiments are useful for reducing social desirability bias when researching sensitive topics (Lépine et al., 2020), in this case, sexual assault. By selecting the number of statements which one agrees with rather than the statements themselves, a list experiment ensures that the respondents’ true opinions are anonymous, as the researcher cannot tell which statements they agree or disagree with.
In this article, I will estimate how many people think that sexual assault can be acceptable. To determine this, respondents are randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. The control group is shown the following statements:
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Society’s attitudes towards sexual assault have evolved over time.
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Sexual assault is never justified under any circumstances.
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Sexual assault is underreported.
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Sexual assault is overreported.
The treatment group is shown an additional fifth statement:
- Sexual assault can be okay.
Both groups are then asked how many of the statements they agree with. The statements were created to prevent participants from selecting zero statements, known as the floor effect, and selecting all statements, known as the ceiling effect. Contradictory statements such as sexual assault is underreported and sexual assault is overreported, causes the respondant to agree with only one, leading one to be excluded, preventing ceiling and floor effects. In addition, participants answer relevant covariate questions, including age, gender, media exposure, race, political party, and experience with sexual violence.
By comparing the mean number of statements that respondents agree with between the groups, I will estimate the average level of agreement with the treatment statement. Then, it is possible to deduce the number of individuals who believe sexual assault is acceptable. I will estimate the effect of different covariates on the likelihood that one thinks sexual assault can be okay. For example, age, gender, media exposure, race, political party, and experience with sexual violence could impact one’s views.
Expectations
The project’s main outcome of interest is analyzing if media influences attitudes about sexual violence. For example, if watching more television shows that include sexual violence makes people more likely to normalize sexual violence in real life. I expect the study to follow prior media framing and narrative literature showing that society is impressionable and highly susceptible to consumed media. Therefore, my main hypothesis is that the more television shows that someone watches that portrays sexual violence positively, the more likely the person is to have a neutral or favorable view on sexual assault in real life, shown in H1.
H1: The more media that people consume that portrays sexual violence positively, the less likely people will say sexual violence is never acceptable.
Since a respondent is unlikely to willfully admit to thinking sexual violence can be acceptable due to social desirability bias, I will test this theory via a list experiment and averaging the mean number of statements selected in each group.
My exploratory hypotheses focus on the role of covariates in how media effects how people view sexual violence. For example, certain age groups, genders, political parties, or experience with sexual assault could impact how likely someone is to say sexual violence is or is not acceptable, in addition to the media they consume. This exploratory hypothesis is represented by H2.
H2: Peoples covariates impact their views on how acceptable sexual assault is.
Findings
Previous literature primarily displays the rising rates of sexual violence in recent years. However, it fails to provide complete reasons as to why rates are rising because they neglect the influence of the media on views and thus following actions. By running my list experiment, I would be able to add to the literature by discovering the average United States’ citizen’s views, ages 13 to 65, on sexual violence. I would use the averages of the results from the groups to deduce their views on sexual assault and the patterns in the views and media consumed. I would determine which types of depictions of sexual violence impact views of the topic in a positive or neutral manner and which impact in a negative manner. I would also analyze covariates, such as race, age, location, party, and if one has or knows of one who has experienced sexual assault, compared to their views to determine which are more likely to result in bias.
Future Directions
1. Survey Protocol
Which state/territory do you reside in?
- Dropdown of states/territories
What party do you affiliate with?
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Republican
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Democrat
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Independent
How strongly do you affiliate with that party?
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Very strongly
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Strongly
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Mildly
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Weakly
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Very weakly
Please select your age range
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Under 12 (void)
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12-17
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18-34
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35-64
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65+ (void)
Which of the following do you most closely identify with?
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Male
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Female
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Non-Binary
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Prefer not to specify
What is your highest level of education?
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Student
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High school graduate
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Undergraduate degree
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Master’s/Graduate degree
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Ph.D/Doctorate degree
Have you or someone you know been a victim of sexual assault?
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Yes
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No
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Prefer not to answer
Statements
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Society’s attitudes towards sexual assault have evolved over time
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Sexual assault is never justified under any circumstances
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Sexual assault is underreported
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Sexual assault is overreported
Treatment Statement:
- Sexual assault can be okay
How many of the statements do you agree with?
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
Multiselect: which of the following media have you consumed?
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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
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Grey’s Anatomy
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Big Little Lies
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13 Reasons Why
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Game of Thrones
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True Crime
Conclusion
In order to discover how the media’s depictions of sexual violence influences views and actions, I conducted a literature review exploring prior scholarship on rates of sexual assault and correlated with media coverage. Additionally, for future research direction, I propose a list experiment: a survey-type experiment where respondents are asked to read a set of statements and select the amount that they agree with. The experiment will also collect covariates and the types of media each respondent consumes, including popular media that depicts sexual violence. Through cross-examining the results, I expect to find that individuals who consume more positive depictions of sexual violence, where the perpetrator is not visibly punished, will have more neutral or positive views towards the subject, and conversely, those who consume more negative depictions of sexual violence, where the perpetrator is visibly punished, will likely have more negative views of sexual violence. With this in mind, I argue that with a decline in positive depictions of sexual violence, there will also be a decline in sexual violence itself.