Exploring and Measuring Victim Blaming and Self-Blame of Women Who Have Been Subjected to Sexual Violence by Jessica Eaton

‘LOGICALLY, I KNOW I’M NOT TO BLAME BUT I STILL FEEL TO BLAME’: EXPLORING AND MEASURING VICTIM BLAMING AND SELF-BLAME OF WOMEN WHO HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO SEXUAL VIOLENCE BY JESSICA EATON A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Centre for Forensic and Criminological Psychology School of Psychology University of Birmingham March 2019 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract Victim blaming and self-blame are common experiences for women who have been subjected to sexual violence (Gravelin, Beirnat & Bucher, 2019). This thesis employs a comprehensive mixed-methods approach from a critical realist feminist epistemology. Chapter one introduces victim blaming and self-blame of women, including rationale for the language and terminology used in this thesis. Chapter two presents a review of the literature of victim blaming of women and chapter three sets out the methodology of the thesis. Chapter four presents the exploration and initial development of a new measure of victim Blaming of Women Subjected to Sexual Violence and Abuse (BOWSVA Scale). Chapter five and six present two qualitative studies exploring the language used to construct the victim blaming and self-blame of women, the first study from the perspective of women subjected to sexual violence and the second from the perspective of professionals who work in sexual violence support. The three studies result in a final discussion proposing a new integrated model of victim blaming of women and further findings about the victim blaming of women in society, self-blame of women after sexual violence and the way language constructs the blame of women. Dedication To all the women who took part in this research. To all the women and girls who have been subjected to violence and abuse. To all the women and girls growing up in a society that blames them for male violence. To all the women and girls wrestling with the feeling that they were in some way to blame for what someone else did to them. To all the women and girls who were told to change their character, behaviour, appearance or lifestyle after they were raped or abused. To all the activists, feminists, whistleblowers, researchers and professionals who work tirelessly to challenge the institutional blaming and pathologisation of women and girls. We all deserve a world in which rape and abuse of women and girls does not happen. But until then, the least we can do is stop blaming them and offer our unconditional support. Acknowledgments I would like to take the opportunity to thank some important people in my life that made this PhD possible. Alex, my husband and best friend. Nothing I write here will ever adequately describe the support, love and commitment you have given to me. I have never known anyone so able to stand by me and hold me to account at the same time. Your unwavering support and love will always be cherished. My sons. As small as you are now, you have both supported me and loved me even when I have been glued to a laptop for entire weekends and evenings. You have been my inspiration and motivation since you were both born. To my supervisors, Dr Heather Flowe and Dr Andy Fox. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have met you both and had your support and belief when I needed it most. At the time when I was questioning why I was doing this research, you both lifted me up and propelled me forward. To Dr Darren Bishopp, I would like to thank you for the fire you lit in me, about measurement, language and psychometrics. Your incredible passion and knowledge for this topic intrigued me. I still consider myself to be a beginner, but your ideas have inspired me to continue exploring and developing psychometrics and language use in psychological measurement. To all of the people who took part in my studies over the last three years. None of the conclusions, ideas and theories contained within my thesis would have been possible if you hadn’t given your time, taken part or talked to me. To the women and professionals who met with me for interviews: I cannot thank you enough for your time and ideas. Your honesty and authenticity have led directly to new conclusions and resources we can use to support women who are blamed for being subjected to sexual violence. To the peer group of professionals and academics who helped to validate and critique the items in the BOWSVA as they were being developed and tested. Thank you for taking the time to support the development of the measure. I would like to thank the friends who supported me throughout this PhD. A special thanks to Rachel Marchant and Claire Paterson-Young for your love and support over the years. To my sisters who stood by me, supported me, picked me up and empowered me to push forwards: never underestimate the strength, support and sense of humour you gave me when I needed it. Empowered women empower women. Table of Contents Content Page Chapter 1 Introduction 1 - Victim blaming and self-blame 1 - The prevalence and impact of victim blaming 2 - The use of terminology in this thesis 3 - Sexual violence 3 - Blame and self-blame 4 Victims and survivors 5 Chapter 2 Review of the literature 7 - Theories of victim blaming 7 - Rape myth acceptance 7 - Sexism and gender role stereotypes 10 Belief in a just world 13 - Individualism and self-preservation 16 - Attribution theories 20 - Counterfactual thinking and perceived control 22 - Factors related to victim blaming and self-blame of women 25 subjected to sexual violence - Measuring victim blaming 31 - Summary of the literature review 33 Chapter 3 Thesis methodology 37 - Issues with methodology in the victim blaming literature 37 - Ontology and epistemology 39 - Critical reflexivity 43 Chapter 4 Study 1: Development and initial testing of the BOWSVA 46 psychometric measure: Blame of Women Subjected to Sexual Violence and Abuse - Abstract 46 Introduction 47 - Method 53 - Mapping existing measures 53 - Item development 58 - The process of critique, amendment and feedback 59 - Face validity 62 - Response item measurement development 64 - Design 65 - Participants 68 - Materials 71 - Procedure 71 - Results 72 - Component analysis 73 - Individual item responses 79 - Concurrent validity 90 - Participant feedback 92 - Discussion 93 - Reflexive comment 99 Conclusion 99 Chapter 5 105 Study 2: Women’s constructions of victim blaming and self- blame after sexual violence: A critical discursive analysis - Abstract 105 - Introduction 105 - Method 107 - Results 111 - Discussion 142 - Reflexive comment 148 - Conclusion 149 Chapter 6 153 Study 3: Professional’s constructions of victim blaming and self- blame of women subjected to sexual violence: A critical discursive analysis - Abstract 153 - Introduction 153 - Method 155 - Results 159 - Discussion 175 - Reflexive comment 178 - Conclusion 179 Chapter 7 186 Discussion - The use of language to construct victim blaming and self- 186 blame - Victim blaming in society 190 - Findings about the victim blaming of women 197 - Relationships between quantitative and qualitative findings 201 - Findings about the self-blame of women 205 The relationship between rape myth acceptance and victim 212 blaming - Points about methodology and approach 215 - Implications for research and practice 219 - Future research and campaigns building on this thesis 223 Conclusion 226 Reference List 227 Appendix Content Table 239 Appendix 239-295 List of Illustrations Figure Page Figure 1: Ecological model of factors contributing to victim blaming of women 27 subjected to sexual violence Figure 2: Age of study participants 70 Figure 3: Ethnicity of study participants 70 Figure 4: Religion of study participants 71 Figure 5: Proposing an integrated framework of victim blaming of women 193 subjected to sexual violence Figure 6: Victim Blaming of Women Hierarchy Triangle 204 List of Tables Table Page Table 1: Exploration of item themes in each measure used in victim blaming 55 literature Table 2: Items that measure blame of women in psychometric measures used in 57 victim blaming literature Table 3: Balancing the content of items developed for BOWSVA 62 Table 4: Balancing the language used to describe sexual offences in the 64 BOWSVA items Table 5: Job roles of participants 71 Table 6: Factor loading for subscale 1 75 Table 7: Factor loading for subscale 2 76 Table 8: Factor loading for subscale 3 77 Table 9: Factor loading for subscale 4 77 Table 10: Factor loading for subscale 5 78 Table 11: Factor loading for subscale 6 79 Table 12: Factor loading for subscale 7 80 Table 13: Item frequencies for subscale 1 82 Table 14: Item frequencies for subscale 2 83 Table 15: Item frequencies for subscale 3 85 Table 16: Item frequencies for subscale 4 86 Table 17: Item frequencies for subscale 5 87 Table 18: Item frequencies for subscale 6 88 Table 19: Item frequencies for subscale 7 89 Table 20: Difference between male and female participant scores for each 91 BOWSVA subscale Table 21: Individual BOWSVA subscales correlation with overall U-IRMAS score 92 Table 22: BOWSVA subscales correlation with U-IRMAS subscales 93 Table 23: Percentage of themes in comments left in questionnaire feedback 94 Table 24: Definitions of the discursive tools as the focus for analysis (adapted 111 from Edley, 2001) Table 25: Key discursive tools used by women to talk about victim blaming and 112 self-blame Table 26: Key discursive tools used by professionals to talk about victim blaming 159 and self-blame of women Chapter 1: Introduction Victim blaming and self-blame ‘Victim blaming’, defined as the transference of blame from the perpetrator of a crime to the victim, was first coined by William Ryan (1971).

Load more