Explaining Societal Shifts in Victim Blaming and Perpetrator Culpability for Sexual Violence: Evidence From the #MeToo Era.

Abstract

Despite increasing public condemnation of sexual violence, it is unclear how these social and political changes correspond to shifts in individual attitudes. This study investigates how attitudes toward sexual violence changed in Scotland, in the context of the #MeToo movement. This study applies the threefold Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to the cross-sectional 2014 and 2019 Scottish Social Attitudes Surveys (N = 2133) to investigate how attitudes towards victim blaming and perpetrator culpability have changed over time. Perceptions of perpetrator culpability increased and victim blaming decreased significantly between 2014 and 2019. Reduction in victim blaming was associated with the liberalization of gender role attitudes and the increased influence of political interest on attitudes in 2019. Heightened perceptions of perpetrator culpability were associated with declining levels of authoritarianism, as well as greater attitudinal changes amongst women and left-wingers relative to other social groups. The findings highlight the importance of both societal shifts in value orientations and gender attitudes, as well as divergent patterns of change amongst different social groups. Implications for other populations, policy, and consent education are discussed. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11199-025-01590-6.