The influence of victim's attire on adolescents' judgments of date rape

A vignette depicting a date rape was presented to 352 male and female high school students. To investigate the effect of the victim's clothing on subjects' judgments of the date rape, the vignette was accompanied by either a photograph of the victim dressed provocatively, a photograph of the victim dressed conservatively, or no photograph. Subjects who viewed the photograph of the victim in provocative clothing were more likely than subjects who viewed the victim dressed conservatively or who saw no photograph of the victim to indicate that the victim was responsible for her assailant's behavior, that his behavior was justified, and were less likely to judge the act of unwanted sexual intercourse as rape.