Blaming sexual violence victims in the context of internalized sexism and female intragender hostility

Abstract

Blaming women victims of sexual violence is a widespread, stubborn and serious problem. The discourse on “guilt” and the credibility of victims based on rape myths is common and universal, and the same is true for the phenomenon of intra-female victim blaming. This paper focuses on existing knowledge on the origins and key features of internalized sexism and female intra-gender hostility, which are assumed to generate the most of sexual violence victims’ blaming by other women from the general population, as well as by women who professionally come in contact with the victims of sexual offenses.