I think that some of the motivation for discussing whether short skirts increase stranger rape risk is not-true-rejection behavior to avoid discussing acquaintance rape—a far more frequent kind of rape that requires very different responses.
I’m not certain how different the responses actually are in this particular context. We might expect effective risk-minimization behavior to look different overall, but if there’s anything to the theory that victims’ social presentation styles are a risk factor for rape in general, I’d expect them to be a risk factor for acquaintance rapes unless we have some particularly good reason to think that rapists of strangers have unique psychology in this respect.
Indeed, the only empirical data I remember being linked in this thread found its strongest links for date and spousal rape, though the association looks to be on the weak side either way.
The study looked as though it was pretty hypothetical.
There’s one I can’t find at the moment which was based on interviewing rapists, and it concluded that rapists select for vulnerability (a drunk woman at a bar who’s by herself) rather than by clothing.
I’m not certain how different the responses actually are in this particular context. We might expect effective risk-minimization behavior to look different overall, but if there’s anything to the theory that victims’ social presentation styles are a risk factor for rape in general, I’d expect them to be a risk factor for acquaintance rapes unless we have some particularly good reason to think that rapists of strangers have unique psychology in this respect.
Indeed, the only empirical data I remember being linked in this thread found its strongest links for date and spousal rape, though the association looks to be on the weak side either way.
The study looked as though it was pretty hypothetical.
There’s one I can’t find at the moment which was based on interviewing rapists, and it concluded that rapists select for vulnerability (a drunk woman at a bar who’s by herself) rather than by clothing.