Title

Rape cases in the UK have been rising steadily since 2014, as such, it is important to understand rape. Preventative strategies widely focus on victim blaming practices, the present research argues that preventative measures should focus on rape victim empathy (RVE) to reduce the number of attempted rapes, rather than completed. The present study explores the roles of psychosocial constructs as predictors of RVE, while also exploring group differences in gender, sexuality, and education. The study found that lower cognitive empathy, higher SDO and higher gender-blind sexism predict higher RVE, contradicting current literature. It was also found that heterosexual men of higher education are the demographic with the lowest RVE scores. Future research directions and reasons for contrasting results are discussed.