Residual Rape Myth Acceptance among Young Women Who Have Recently Completed a Sexual Violence Prevention Workshop

This study explored young women's conceptions of sexual violence after attending a prevention workshop at university and addressed how rape myths feature in ongoing thinking about sexual violence. Three focus groups were carried out with a total of seven 18-/19-year-old women living in residential colleges who had recently attended a sexual violence prevention workshop during their first year at a university in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The focus groups involved activities to discuss rape myths and wider perspectives about tackling sexual violence on campus. Thematic analysis led to the development of three themes: women's lived experience of rape culture, women's residual rape myth acceptance, and encouraging men to challenge rape culture. These results demonstrate how rape myth acceptance can continue after attending a sexual violence prevention workshop and suggest that workshops should further address rape myths using evidence about how some such myths may be unintentionally reinforced.