A brief report on rape myth acceptance: differences between police officers, law students, and psychology students in the United Kingdom

A common perception is that police officers hold very negative attitudes about rape victims. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to establish whether police officers do accept stereotypical rape myths at a higher level compared to members of other populations. Three comparison samples comprised of police officers, law students, and psychology students, completed the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance scale (IRMA). Male and female police officers accepted ‘she lied’ myths at a higher level than the student samples. Student samples were found to accept two types of rape myths (‘she asked for it’ and ‘he didn’t meant to’) at a higher level compared to police officers. No significant differences were found in the other four sub-factors. Therefore, the pattern of results suggests that police officers do not adhere to stereotypical myths about rape victims more than do other populations.