The Texas rape scale

A rape scale was developed that can be used to assess male and female attitudes and reactions to rape. A series of subscales indexes sexual aggression, defense against rape, intensity of reactions toward rape, knowledge about the characteristics of rape, and personal circumtances. The scale is of potential value to investigators interested in more clearly defining sexual differences. The Texas Rape Scale (TRS) of 96 statements was administered to 261 males and 259 females to measure attitudes common to rape, sexual aggression, and defense against rape. Fifteen of the items relate to rape resistance and eleven to sexual aggression. Fifteen additional items comprise a “rape knowledge scale,” and sixteen items sample background variables. Ten of the ninety-six attitude statements measure intensity of reaction to rape. This subscale is called the Texas Rape Intensity Scale (TRIS) and was selected from a larger scale of 30 items independently judged for intensity on a nine-point scale by 57 males and 58 females. Five negative statements had a median intensity of 7.13 or greater, while the other five had a median intensity of 3.29 or less. These ten items were imbedded within the larger TRS.The Rape Resistance and Sexual Aggression scales had reliability coefficients of 0.42 and 0.56, respectively. Of the 96 items, 72 showed significant sex differences. Females scored higher on most items of the TRIS scale, and generally supported the rape resistance scale items. Males, on the other hand, favored the sexual aggression items. Individuals of both sexes scoring high on TRIS scored high on the Rape Resistance Scale, whereas those scoring low on TRIS scored high on the Sexual Aggression Scale. A factor analysis of the 96 items gave three factors: 1) a sexual aggression factor, 2) a rape rationalization factor, and 3) a punishment factor. Scores on the knowledge and background scales were not predictive of attitudes. When asked to respond to, “I would force a person of the opposite sex to have sex if there were 0% probability of being caught,” 27% of the males responded other than “strongly disagree,” whereas 6% of the females responded other than “strongly disagree.” Agreement or disagreement with this statement interacts significantly with the TRIS, Rape Resistance, and Sexual Aggression Scales.The TRS shows versatility in defining sex differences and in relating attitudes to predispositions toward reactions of intensity to rape and to rape aggression and rape resistance statements.