| Summary: | Research has demonstrated that the general public accepts many rape myths and that rape attitudes are strongly connected to other deeply held and pervasive attitudes. However, it has not been clear whether police officers reflected similar attitudes. This research attempted to ascertain if police share the same antecedents of rape myth acceptance as the general public. Using officers from two police departments, it was demonstrated that attidudes regarding sex role stereotyping, sexual conservatism, acceptance of interpersonal violence, and adversarial sexual beliefs were significantly correlated with acceptance of rape myths. However, police were more pro-victim (p < .01) in their attitudes as compared to the general public. Officers who received specialized rape-related training were not significantly different in rape attitudes from those officers who had not received training.
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