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A Systematic Review of Attitudes Contributing to a Social Climate that Tolerates Sexual Violence

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About the project

Sexual violence refers to non-consensual acts grounded in power disparities and the gender roles assigned by society to men and women. Events in recent years have shone a spotlight on society’s tolerance for such acts and for those who commit them. Research has also emphasized the importance of certain attitudes in explaining the existence of a social climate that tolerates sexual violence.

The objectives of this study’s systematic literature review were twofold:

  1. identifying, describing and classifying attitudes that contribute to tolerance for sexual violence, and
  2. determining the influence of these attitudes on measurable aspects of tolerance for sexual violence. For the systematic literature review, we followed the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (Moher et al., 2009) and surveyed two digital platforms (PsycArticles and ProQuest) to find articles published between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2022. Of the 1,783 references we examined, 26 articles covering 34 independent studies satisfied the inclusion criteria.

Key findings

Objective 1: Identifying, describing and classifying attitudes that contribute to tolerance for sexual violence

Objective 2: Determining the influence of these attitudes on measurable aspects of tolerance for sexual violence

Policy implications

A policy of reducing social tolerance for sexual violence must not only target a belief in rape myths, but also be part of broader initiatives to deconstruct gender stereotypes and promote equal gender relations. To accomplish this, we recommend:

Further information

Read the full report

Contact the researchers

Dominique Trottier, psychologist and professor, Department of psychoeducation and psychology, Université du Québec en Outaouais, and director of the Laboratoire de recherche sur les violences sexuelles et sexistes: dominique.trottier@uqo.ca

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