探究同理心、性別歧視以及他人負面社會反應對於泰國警察面對強暴受害者時的態度和行為之影響

Background: Sexual violence is a serious issue all over the world. Every year, sexual abuse and violence against adults make national headlines in Thailand. The Pavena Foundation for Children and Women has recorded nearly 9,000 victims of sexual assault since 1999, and the number appears to be growing. Rape is also a traumatic experience with a wide range of negative consequences for victim-survivors. For police officers who are the first formal responders to survivors of sexual violence, their attitudes and behaviors significantly impact the judgment of victims and the legal system.
Study Purpose: To investigate whether the exposure to negative social reactions of others influences the attitudes and behaviors toward rape victims in Thai police officers by exploring the interactive effects of empathy, sexism, and negative social reactions.
Study Design: The current study is a cross-sectional study conducted by 200 male Thai police officers. The study used online survey as a method to collect data. The participants were recruited through personal researcher connection and snowball sampling. Link of questionnaires’ website: freeonlinesurveys.com was sent by online message and applied questionnaire to measure the attitude and behavior by evaluating mock police report in which rape situations and social reactions were presented.
Methods: Thai Police officers who are eligible were asked to participate in this study. All participants were assigned to read two different social reactions (negative and positive) and were required to do the questionnaire to measure sexism, empathy, attitudes, and behaviors toward the hypothetical victim in the scenarios. In the study, ambivalence sexism inventory was used for assessing sexism and empathy measured by Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI).
Data Analysis: Statistical software SPSS version 25 was used in this analysis. Descriptive statistics was the first used with the study variable. Next, the study was calculated with three-way analyses of variance (2×4×2), between-subjects Factorial ANOVA was conducted, Bivariate correlation analysis and Fisher’s was applied. Finally, sensitivity analysis was used to determine the robustness of the method and the power of the study. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Ethics: Ethical approval will be obtained from Taipei medical university-Join Institutional Review Board (TMU-JIRB, Serial number: N20210478). Written consent will be obtained from all the participants in this study.
Results: The results were shown that there were differences in hypothetical judgments across different characteristics such as sexism and empathy of male Thai police officers exposed to negative social reactions to social distance. High empathetic police officers who hold non-sexism exposure to negative social reactions have a greater willingness to be close to the victim the individuals with low empathy scores.
Discussions: The effect of social reactions, sexism, and influent empathy judgment of being socially closed toward rape victims in male Thai police officers in this study. However, previous studies highlighted that attitudes and behaviors of people, especially police officers, should maintain a critical mindset, such as sexism, empathy, and the effect of social reactions, which are essential components in identifying individuals who will serve as police officers and it might be affected by the judgment of others which is crucial to the judicial process. Notably, a training program for a specialist who works with sexual assault victims is a necessary subconscious that must be embedded.
Keywords: social reactions, sexism, empathy, police, rape victim, attitudes, behaviors