Updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (McMahon & Farmer, 2011)

• Populations: adolescents; young adults
• Age ranges: 16-21, second sample college students (age not reported)
• Languages: Norwegian, English
• Countries: Norway; United States

Items

Updated IRMA subscales:

• She asked for it
• It wasn’t really rape
• He didn’t mean to
• She lied

Updated IRMA by subscale:

She Asked for it:

•  If a girl is raped while she is drunk, she is at least somewhat responsible for letting things get out of control
• When girls go to parties wearing slutty clothes, they are asking for trouble
• If a girl goes to a room alone with a guy at a party, it is her own fault if she is raped
• If a girl acts like a slut, eventually she is going to get into trouble
• When girls are raped, it’s often because the way they said “no” was unclear
• If a girl initiates kissing or hooking up, she should not be surprised if a guy assuems she wants to have sex

He Didn’t Mean to:

• When guy;s rape, it is usually because of their strong desire for sex
• Guys don’t usually intend to force sex on a girl, but sometimes they get too sexually carried away
• Rape happens when a guy’s sex drive gets out of control
• If a guy is drunk, he might rape someone unintentionally
• It shouldn’t be considered rape if a guy is drunk and didn’t realize what he was doing
• If both people are drunk, it can’t be rape

It Wasn’t Really Rape

• If a girl doesn’t physically resist sex- even if protesting verbally- it can’t be considered rape
• If a girl doesn’t physically fight back, you can’t really say it was rape
• A rape probably didn’t happen if the girl has no bruises or marks
• If the accuesed “rapist” doesn’t have a weapon, you really can’t call it rape
• If a girl doesn’t say “no” she can’t claim rape

She Lied

• A lot of times, girls who say they were raped agreed to have sex and then regret it.
• Rape accusations are often used as a way of getting back at guys
• A lot of times, girls who say they were raped often led the guy on and then had regrets
• A lot of times, girls who claim they were raped just have emotional problems
• Girls who are caught cheating on their boyfriends sometimes claim that it was a rape

Short form IRMA items:

• If a girl is raped while she is drunk, she is at least somewhat responsible for letting things get out of hand
• When girls get raped, it’s often because the way they said “no” was unclear.
• It shouldn’t be considered rape if a guy is drunk and didn’t realize what he was doing
• If both people are drunk, it can’t be rape
• If a girl doesn’t physically fight back, you can’t really say it was rape
• A rape probably doesn’t happen if a girl doesn’t have any bruises or marks
• A lot of times, girls who say they were raped often led the guy on and then had regrets
• A lot of times, girls who claim they were raped have emotional problems

Responses:

All item s used a 5 point Likert scale, 1 = Strongly Agree, 5 = Strongly Disagree

Scoring

Higher Scores indicate greater rejection of rape myths

Citations

• McMahon, S., & Farmer, G. L. (2011). An Updated Measure for Assessing Subtle Rape Myths. Social Work Research, 35(2), 71–81. https://doi.org/10.1093/swr/35.2.71
• Bendixen, M., & Kennair, L. E. O. (2017). When less is more: Psychometric properties of Norwegian short‐forms of the Ambivalent Sexism Scales ( ASI and AMI ) and the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance ( IRMA ) Scale. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 58(6), 541–550. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12392
• Coker, A. L., Bush, H. M., Brancato, C., Huang, Z., Clear, E. R., & Follingstad, D. R. (2022). A methodology report for the Life’s snapshot cohort study to investigate the long-term efficacy of a violence intervention. Violence Against Women, 28(1), 316-344. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801221992871
• 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. https://doi.org/10.1006/jrpe.1998.2238