Karen Kate Kellum
Karen Kate Kellum
Bio:
Kate currently serves as the Associate Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Mississippi. She holds a masters degree in education from Purdue University and a doctoral degree in psychology from the University of Nevada Reno. She loves behavioral conceptualizations of complex behavior and has considerable experience in assessment of educational and research activities, time-series research design, and performance improvement. She has been consulting with schools, universities and non-profits in the USA and UK for over 20 years to improve their ability to implement contextual changes and measure learning/organizational outcomes. Kate is an active presenter at national and international conferences.
Abstract:
Chapter 6: BLAME
Not I: A Behavioral Conceptualization of Perpetrator Blame
The way that blame is attributed to both victims and perpetrators of sexual violence has been a point of contention. This has become more prominent and has been emphasized by the media in several well publicized cases, including People v. Brock Turner (2016) and more recently, the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and the subsequent appointment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Blame attribution has typically been studied through a social psychology lens, but to further understand how and why these inappropriate and harmful misattributions occur, it is important to investigate this phenomenon from a behavioral perspective. This paper will conceptualize perpetrator blame from a behavioral approach. The authors will address the current body of work around perpetrator blame and its background in social psychology, as well as the contexts in which perpetrator blame is examined. This paper will also take steps to describe perpetrator blame in behavioral terms and make recommendations for influencing effective behavior change in remedying problematic blame attribution in cases of sexual violence.
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