Using vignettes to change knowledge and attitudes about rape

This article describes a classroom activity that was aimed at increasing knowledge and changing attitudes regarding rape in an undergraduate Forensic Psychology class. Students from four sections of the course taught over two years were included in the study. Two of the sections participated in the exercise which required students to read vignettes of fictional rape cases and make individual and group decisions by determining if rape occurred or not and two of the sections did not perform the exercise and represented the control condition. Students showed a lack of understanding in identifying instances of rape. There was a greater increase in knowledge and more favorable attitude change for students in the experimental group compared to the control condition. Exercises of this nature can be easily incorporated into a variety of classes in order to provide information regarding rape to college students.