Rape is fault of the victims, say half of women: survey

LONDON - Half of women think that rape victims are to blame for the attack, a media report said Monday quoting a British study.

The poll of 1,000 adults found that 54 percent of women believe rape victims should be held accountable for their attack and women were more likely than men to blame victims, with those aged between 18 and 24 the most likely to judge, Daily Mail reported.

The report quoted Elizabeth Harrison, manager of the Whitechapel Haven that is one of three Havens centres in London that help victims of sexual assault, as saying: “Women look at court cases and think she was drunk, she wore a short skirt, I don’t do that so it won’t happen to me”.

“The 18-24 age group were more likely to say that engaging in conversation in a bar or accepting a drink makes them partially responsible,” she said.

According to the report, 24 percent of the age group said wearing a short skirt, accepting a drink or having a conversation with the rapist made victims partly responsible.

The ‘Wake Up To Rape’ survey also found that 14 percent of women believe most rape claims are made up and over one in ten women said dancing provocatively, flirting or wearing revealing clothing made the victims partly responsible.

The survey also found that one in three men said they didn’t think it was rape if they made their partner have sex when they didn’t want to and 13 percent of men admitted having sex with a partner who was too drunk to know what was happening.

The sexual assault clinics that carried out the poll said this blame culture was deterring victims from reporting the crime, according to the report.