Victim blaming is a scenario in which a victim of a crime is held partially or fully responsible for the harm that occurred on them and is especially prevalent in sexual assault cases in contrast to victims of other crimes (Gravelin et al., 2019). Researchers distinguish among three different types of sexual assault: stranger rape, acquaintance rape and marital rape, and out of these different types of sexual assault, victims of stranger rape are blamed the least, whereas martial rape victims are more likely to undergo victim blaming (Gravelin et al., 2019). It can be concluded that regarding sexual assault cases, victim blaming increases when the offender and victim are more familiar with each other.

Many studies have discovered that women are less likely to victim blame than men in relation to sexual assault cases (Basow and Mineri, 2011). Varelas and Foley, 1998, conducted a study regarding how race plays a factor in victim blaming amongst sexual assault, it was found that white participants blamed victims the least when the victim was white, and the offender was black. Socioeconomic status also plays a key role in victim blaming, as showcased in a study conducted by Black and Gold 2008, in which the socioeconomic status of the offender was changed to examine if this affected victim blaming. It was found that when the offender was described as a bus driver, women, not men, were more prone to victim blaming in contrast to when the offender was described as a doctor (Gravelin et al., 2019).

However, a limitation of the study conducted by Black and Gold 2008 failed to mention any information regarding the victims occupation, which may have led to the participants assuming she held a higher socio-economic status than the bus driver (Gravelin et al., 2019). The overall narrative review written by Gravelin et al., 2019 was limited by the reliance of study significance levels without taking study power into consideration.

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