The Determination of Blame in a Hypothetical Case of Sexual Abuse Based on Respondent Age

Attributions of blame in cases of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) have been studied in relation to factors including: victim age, victim gender, perpetrator gender, and respondent gender. The current study examined the effect of respondent age on attributions of blame in a hypothetical case of CSA, involving an adolescent male and an adult female. It was predicted that younger respondents would attribute more blame to the adult and the family and less blame to the adolescent in the scenario than would older respondents. Participants were asked to read a brief scenario depicting sexual abuse and to answer questions pertaining to victim, perpetrator and family blame. Respondents were invited to include a narrative response to the scenario and survey. Significant differences between age groups were found only in relation to victim blame however, the difference was in the opposite direction than that which was hypothesized. Directions for future research are discussed.