Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2024
Abstract
Sexual assault is pervasively underreported, and victims are often blamed and stigmatized. We highlight an important but overlooked factor that may contribute to these outcomes: adjacent consent. Even when a rape is objected to verbally and physically, and accomplished only through violent force, respondents see the victim as less virtuous and deserving of support if she previously consented to something sexual with her perpetrator (e.g., kissing, foreplay, sex on a prior occasion). Our findings are striking in an age of “no means no” and “affirmative consent”—and notably hold among even young and politically progressive respondents who do not otherwise disapprove of casual sexual activity. These results thus shed light on the psychological barriers to justice for sexual assault victims.
Recommended Citation
Jordan, Jillian J. and Roseanna Sommers. "Sexual assault victims face a penalty for adjacent consent." Proccedings from the National Academy of Sciences 121, no. 34 (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2403609121
Comments
Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).