Culture of honour and the blaming of women in cases of rape / La cultura del honor y la inculpación de la mujer en casos de violación

Abstract The main objective of this research was to examine the influence of the culture of honour on victim blaming according to three types of rape scenarios involving the rape of a married woman (stranger rape vs. acquaintance rape vs. marital rape). A total of 262 university students (120 men and 142 women) participated in this study. Our results confirmed the influence of the culture of honour on the acquaintance rape scenario in the degree of victim blaming, followed by the marital rape scenario. In both scenarios the behaviour of the victim challenged the codes of the culture of honour. The results confirmed that the participants’ answers depended on the interaction of situational variables of a rape (type of scenarios) and the variables concerning the observer (the culture of honour).