Sex and Gender Issues: A Handbook of Tests and Measures

The subjects of rape and sexual coercion have attracted considerable attention in the past decade, particularly on university campuses. It is not surprising, therefore, that these subjects have also been the focus of numerous research studies, and researchers have developed many measures for studying these topics.

This chapter contains descriptions of 25 measures relating to rape and sexual coercion. The measures are arranged alphabetically by title and cover a broad range of topics, such as rape knowledge, rape prevention, rape blame, effects of rape, attitudes regarding rape, and experience with sexually coercive fantasies or behaviors. There are scales dealing with acquaintance rape and with stranger rape. There are scales appropriate only for females, only for males, and for both sexes. Some scales are labeled as being appropriate for high school students and older, and others are labeled as being appropriate for college students and older. In actuality, the scales are probably all appropriate for the same age range: adolescents and older. Before using a particular scale with a particular population, researchers would be wise to pilot test the measure to ensure that the items and the concepts are understandable to the respondents.

Most of the scales in this chapter are summated rating scales, ranging in length from 6 to 120 items. All have been developed relatively recently. The oldest scale is Barnett and Feild ( 1977) Attitudes Toward Rape Questionnaire. The newest is Malamuth ( 1989a, 1989b) Attraction to Sexual Aggression Scale. Although most of these scales have been used by few researchers, two scales are accompanied by over 20 references: Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence ( Burt, 1980) and the Rape MythAcceptance Scale

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