Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMA)

What is the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMA)?

Rape myths are attitudes and beliefs that are typically false yet continue to be persistently and widely held. These serve to justify and deny male sexual aggression against women (Lonsway, 1999).

Recent years have shown decreased rates of rape myth acceptance, but victim blame in cases of acquaintance rape is higher than in stranger rape (Persson & Dhingra, 2022; Thelan & Meadows, 2022).

The Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMA) aims to understand respondents' level of agreement when considering statements about women, sexual assault, and rape accusations. It contains 45 items, 40 of which are rape myths, along with 5 filler items to control response sets.  Such rape myths include: rape being women lead, women secretly desiring rape, what degree rape affects women and physically forced sex (Payne et al., 1999). An example of a filler item is that "‘‘It is preferable that a female police officer conduct the questioning when a woman reports a rape’’ (Payne et al., 1999).

The 45 items are categorized into the following seven subscales (Lonsway, 1999):

• 1 = She asked for it (SA)
• 2 = It wasn't really rape (NR)
• 3 = He didn't mean to (MT)
• 4 = She wanted it (WI)
• 5 = She lied (LI)
• 6 = Rape is a trivial event (TE)
• 7 = Rape is a deviant event (DE)

The construction of this scale involved the consideration of important issues, including representation of the rape myth construct, wording and clarity of items, and colloquial phrases (Lonsway, 1999). Examples include the use of language such as "women tend," "only women," and "force sex" (Payne et al., 1999).

How to use our Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale template

Using the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale template is a straightforward process. Follow these steps to get started:

Step 1: Download the template

Access the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale template by clicking "Use template", allowing you to edit the resource via the Carepatron app. For a PDF copy, choose "Download."

Step 2: Familiarize yourself with the template

The template is designed to guide you through the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. It includes space for essential patient information, such as name, date of birth and gender. The template follows the standard IRMA test, which is composed of 45-items, each relating to one of the seven subscales discussed above.

Step 3: Ask the respondent to complete

Give the template to the respondent to complete. Ensure that they fill out their personal details. Before respondent completion, emphasize that there is no right or wrong answer; rather, it is about understanding their authentic answers. Explain that it is crucial to provide honest answers in order to attain an accurate result. Be sure to guide the individual through the template, helping them with questions if necessary whilst ensuring not to suggest any answers.

Step 4: Score their answers

Calculate the individual's score by summing the seven subscale scores to reach the total score.

Scoring

Scoring the IRMA is a straightforward process that enables professionals to gather information on respondents efficiently. It consists of 45 items categorized into seven subscales. Each item is scored on a 0-7 Likert scale ranging from ("not at all agree" to "very much agree"). A high total score indicates a greater acceptance of rape myths (Payne et al., 1999).

It can be scored by summing the seven subscale scores to create an overall score representing the respondents' level of agreement about women and sexual assault. Ensure that all questions have been answered best to the individuals' ability to get the most accurate results.

The items representing each subscale is represented below (Payne et al., 1999):  

• 1 = She asked for it (SA) subscale: 1, 15, 19, 25, 36, 37, 41, 43
• 2 = It wasn't really rape (NR) subscale: 12, 17, 24, 34, 45
• 3 = He didn't mean to (MT) subscale: 3, 20, 30, 39, 42
• 4 = She wanted it (WI) subscale: 2, 8, 18, 23, 44
• 5 = She lied (LI) subscale: 5, 7, 16, 31, 33
• 6 = Rape is a trivial event (TE) subscale: 4, 14, 26, 29, 38
• 7 = Rape is a deviant event (DE) subscale: 9, 10, 13, 22, 27, 28, 35

Please note that items 6, 11, 21, 32, and 40 are filler items that are not counted toward the total scale value.

Next steps after using this scale

Several methods can be taken once the score has been calculated:

Review and analyze responses

The respondents' total score can be reviewed, acting as an indicator of their acceptance of rape myths, along with the seven subscales to identify trends within the subscales. Further to this, results can be compared to identify patterns in the population surrounding age and gender.

Interpret results

General patterns in the population, along with the total score and subscale trends, can be reviewed to guide further research and/or interventions that consider rape effects and sex research.

References

Hahnel-Peeters, R. K., & Goetz, A. T. (2022). Development and validation of the rape excusing attitudes and language scale. Personality and individual differences, 186, 111359.

Lonsway, K. (1999). Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMA) [Database record]. APA PsycTests.

Payne, D. L., Lonsway, K. A., & Fitzgerald, L. F. (1999). Rape myth acceptance: Exploration of its structure and its measurement using the Illinois rape myth acceptance scale. Journal of Research in Personality, 33(1), 27-68.

Persson, S., & Dhingra, K. (2022). Attributions of blame in stranger and acquaintance rape: A multilevel meta-analysis and systematic review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 23(3), 795-809.

Thelan, A. R., & Meadows, E. A. (2022). The Illinois rape myth acceptance scale—subtle version: Using an adapted measure to understand the declining rates of rape myth acceptance. Journal of interpersonal violence, 37(19-20), NP17807-NP17833.