Slides from the Promoting Respectful Relationships conference in Cardiff 12th November 2010 - See http://www.respectwales.org.uk

1. Promoting respectful relationships

2. Sexual violence
 For children abused outside family, most common
perpetrator is a boyfriend (Cawson et al, 2000)
 9.7% of UK women report sexual victimisation
aged 16+, 4.9% raped (Home Office, 2002: Findings
159)
 Age biggest risk factor (16-24 years)

3. Sexual violence
Mori Poll, 2006
 31% UK women had sex to which they felt they had
not fully consented
Main factors influencing sense of consent
 Under influence of drink/ drugs
 Physical coercion
 Wish/ fear not to upset partner
 Peer group pressure

4. Sexual violence
ICMpoll (2006)
 524 16-18 year olds in UK
 40% know girls whose boyfriends have coerced/
pressured
them into sex
‘Sugar’ magazine/NSPCC (2005)
 2000 UK girls, mean age 15 years, online survey
 6% had experienced forced sex with boyfriend
 33% forgave and stayed in relationship

5. Sexual attitudes and sexual
violence
Malamuth et al, 1991; 1993a,b
‘Hostile masculinity’
 Hostility toward women
 Dominance in sexual relations
 Attitudes accepting of violence toward women

6. Rape myth acceptance
Rape myths as ‘releasers’ or‘neutralizers’
(Burt, 1980)
Frese et al, 2004
 Victim blame highest in acquaintance rape
 Responsibility attribution for perpetrator lowest in
acquaintance rape
 Lower estimated trauma for acquaintance rape

7. Rape myth acceptance
Frese et al, 2004 (cont)
 Situational factors: alcohol/ provocative dress
 Situational factors relevant for individuals with low
RMA
also (victim blame/ estimation of trauma/
recommendation
to report)
 Implies focus for prevention programmes on
‘ambiguous’
situations
 Target specific misconceptions

8. Rape myth acceptance
Amnesty International, 2005
 34% UK respondents believe women have partial or
total
responsibility for being raped if they had behaved
‘flirtatiously’
 26% believed women had some responsibility if
wearing
‘revealing clothing’
 30% believed women had some responsibility if they
were
drunk

9. Genderand rape attribution
 No gender difference found in several studies -
RMA rather than gender (Check & Malamuth, 1983;
Freese et al, 2004)
 Hostility toward women much more significant to
RMA score for men (Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1995)
 Differential function of RMA across gender
 Men: justify male sexual dominance
 Women: mitigate fear and sense of vulnerability
 [‘Just world’ (Lerner and Miller, 1978)]

10.  Sexual attitude survey of 13/ 14 year old school
children in South Wales
 Sample size 131-202
(Moultrie, 2006)

11. Questionnaires
 Items mainly drawn from existing tests
 Themes: rape attitudes, boys as not in control of
sexual
feelings, girls as ‘overly’ sexually available/
interested,
consent, girls as untrustworthy
 5 point scoring scale
 Anonymous and with parental consent
 Interval between tests - 12 weeks

12. Responses to initial
questionnaire
n=131-202
 Boys get such strong sexual feelings that they can’t
always control themselves
very true/ mostly true
60% of boys
70% of girls
 You can’t always blame a boy forgoing too far
very true/ mostly true
60% of boys
70% of girls

13.  Sometimes a boy has to force a girl to have sex if
she won’t agree
very true/ mostly true
20% of boys
40% of girls
 Girls who flirt a lot will probably have sex with
anyone
very true/ mostly true
47% of boys
32% of girls

14.  Girls who party and get drunkjust have to accept
what happens
very true/ mostly true
48% of boys
66% of girls
 Some girls agree to sex but then say afterwards
they were raped
very true/ mostly true
56% of boys
28% of girls

15.  The reason that some girls get raped is that they
lead boys on too much
very true/ mostly true
54% of boys
49% of girls
 The best way fora boy to find out if a girl wants
sex is to keep going until she pushes him off
very true/ mostly true
60% of boys
70% of girls

16. Thoughts so farfor
educational programmes
 Universal programme
 Target ‘ambiguous’ situations
 Challenge RMA/ hostile attitudes

17. ‘Offside!’
Appropriate teenage
relationships
 DVD and workbook resource (7 session outlines)
 Suitable for boys and girls, aged 12+
 Can be used with individuals or groups

18. ‘Offside!’
Tells the story of a group of teenagers, their attempts to
date and a sexual assault that occurs in the context of a
party. We look at the impact on the boy and girl
involved.
 Enhance dating knowledge
 Challenge rape myths
 Enhance victim empathy/ understanding
 Identify negative outcomes

19. Workbook
 Relationships - reciprocity, perspective taking and
forming
relationships
 Power differences in relationships
 Discrimination and sexuality - challenging of
oppressive
attitudes
 Consent
 Victim empathy
 Consequences of sexually harmful behaviour

20. ‘Offside!’

21. Benefits
 Dynamic and credible resource
 For universal or targeted use
 Indirect method of exploring behaviour - less
threatening
and good for ‘deniers’
 Ease and consistency of delivery

22. Process of evaluation
Quantitative
 ‘Offside!’ programme run with 202 students
 No significant gender differences in responses
 Significant reduction in total score pre/ post the
‘Offside!’
programme (but also reduction in control group)

23. Feedbackfromyoung
people
Focus groups and feedbackforms
 Liked the info on romantic and sexual relationships
(rather
than biological info)
 Recalled key themes of consent, age differences in
relationships, how to ask girls out, rejection, victim
impact
(minority)
 Assault scene stimulated discussion as to
responsibility
Recalled more by girls as most significant

24. Thankyou
taith.service@barnardos.org.uk
01656 – 749235
www.barnardos.org.uk/taith