Advanced search
2 files | 377.94 KB Add to list

Empathy for a Black woman victim of police sexual violence : the roles of crime-related stress and stereotype attributions

(2023) JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE. 38(5-6). p.4640-4661
Author
Organization
Abstract
Police sexual violence has been ranked as the second most common form of misconduct among police officers. Moreover, there is evidence that Black women are at heightened risk of being victims of such police violence. A report titled Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women has brought international attention to the minimal empirical focus on such police violence toward Black women. To address this lacuna in the literature, using an incident of police sexual assault of a woman, we assessed whether victim's race and participants' level of crime-related stress (i.e., stress due to crime victimization) would influence empathic responding toward the victim. Prolific participants (N = 411) first completed a measure of crime-related stress. They then read an article describing a White police officer's sexual assault of a Black or White woman. Next, participants completed a racial stereotype-related measure (i.e., Black women's higher sexual proclivity) and a stereotype-unrelated measure (i.e., perceived victim untrustworthiness), and reported their victim-directed empathic responding. At high stress levels, participants reported less empathy for the Black (relative to White) victim. At low stress levels, there was greater Black victim-directed empathy. The race effects on empathy were mediated by heightened attribution of Black women-related stereotypical beliefs to the Black victim at high stress levels and by diminished attribution at low stress levels. In sum, we addressed the lacuna in the literature on police sexual violence against Black women while providing evidence that stress can play a critical role in the occurrence of the oft-cited outgroup-directed empathy deficit.
Keywords
HELP-SEEKING, SOCIAL NORMS, PREJUDICE, OTHERS, RACE, PAIN, stress, empathy, Black women victim, stereotype, police violence

Downloads

  • Stress and Empathy Revision SUBMITTED 6-20-2022.docx
    • full text (Accepted manuscript)
    • |
    • open access
    • |
    • Word
    • |
    • 74.72 KB
  • (...).pdf
    • full text (Published version)
    • |
    • UGent only
    • |
    • PDF
    • |
    • 303.22 KB

Citation

Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:

MLA
Johnson, James, et al. “Empathy for a Black Woman Victim of Police Sexual Violence : The Roles of Crime-Related Stress and Stereotype Attributions.” JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE, vol. 38, no. 5–6, 2023, pp. 4640–61, doi:10.1177/08862605221118964.
APA
Johnson, J., Sattler, D., Van Hiel, A., Dierckx, K., Luo, S., & Vezzali, L. (2023). Empathy for a Black woman victim of police sexual violence : the roles of crime-related stress and stereotype attributions. JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE, 38(5–6), 4640–4661. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605221118964
Chicago author-date
Johnson, James, David Sattler, Alain Van Hiel, Kim Dierckx, Shanhong Luo, and Loris Vezzali. 2023. “Empathy for a Black Woman Victim of Police Sexual Violence : The Roles of Crime-Related Stress and Stereotype Attributions.” JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE 38 (5–6): 4640–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605221118964.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Johnson, James, David Sattler, Alain Van Hiel, Kim Dierckx, Shanhong Luo, and Loris Vezzali. 2023. “Empathy for a Black Woman Victim of Police Sexual Violence : The Roles of Crime-Related Stress and Stereotype Attributions.” JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE 38 (5–6): 4640–4661. doi:10.1177/08862605221118964.
Vancouver
1.
Johnson J, Sattler D, Van Hiel A, Dierckx K, Luo S, Vezzali L. Empathy for a Black woman victim of police sexual violence : the roles of crime-related stress and stereotype attributions. JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE. 2023;38(5–6):4640–61.
IEEE
[1]
J. Johnson, D. Sattler, A. Van Hiel, K. Dierckx, S. Luo, and L. Vezzali, “Empathy for a Black woman victim of police sexual violence : the roles of crime-related stress and stereotype attributions,” JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE, vol. 38, no. 5–6, pp. 4640–4661, 2023.
@article{8767834,
  abstract     = {{Police sexual violence has been ranked as the second most common form of misconduct among police officers. Moreover, there is evidence that Black women are at heightened risk of being victims of such police violence. A report titled Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women has brought international attention to the minimal empirical focus on such police violence toward Black women. To address this lacuna in the literature, using an incident of police sexual assault of a woman, we assessed whether victim's race and participants' level of crime-related stress (i.e., stress due to crime victimization) would influence empathic responding toward the victim. Prolific participants (N = 411) first completed a measure of crime-related stress. They then read an article describing a White police officer's sexual assault of a Black or White woman. Next, participants completed a racial stereotype-related measure (i.e., Black women's higher sexual proclivity) and a stereotype-unrelated measure (i.e., perceived victim untrustworthiness), and reported their victim-directed empathic responding. At high stress levels, participants reported less empathy for the Black (relative to White) victim. At low stress levels, there was greater Black victim-directed empathy. The race effects on empathy were mediated by heightened attribution of Black women-related stereotypical beliefs to the Black victim at high stress levels and by diminished attribution at low stress levels. In sum, we addressed the lacuna in the literature on police sexual violence against Black women while providing evidence that stress can play a critical role in the occurrence of the oft-cited outgroup-directed empathy deficit.}},
  author       = {{Johnson, James and Sattler, David and Van Hiel, Alain and Dierckx, Kim and Luo, Shanhong and Vezzali, Loris}},
  issn         = {{0886-2605}},
  journal      = {{JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE}},
  keywords     = {{HELP-SEEKING,SOCIAL NORMS,PREJUDICE,OTHERS,RACE,PAIN,stress,empathy,Black women victim,stereotype,police violence}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5-6}},
  pages        = {{4640--4661}},
  title        = {{Empathy for a Black woman victim of police sexual violence : the roles of crime-related stress and stereotype attributions}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1177/08862605221118964}},
  volume       = {{38}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}

Altmetric
View in Altmetric
Web of Science
Times cited: