This study investigates the influence of rape myth acceptance on the credibility judgments of real victim statements among police professionals. Drawing on the findings of Sleath and Bull’s (Violence Vict 30:36–147, 2015) systematic review that police officers with higher rape myth acceptance tend to blame victims more and question their credibility, we sought to extend this research to the assessment of actual victim statements. Two studies were conducted, involving 113 police students (Study 1) and 91 interrogation-experienced detectives (Study 2). Participants watched one of two videos depicting real police witness interviews of a sexual assault by an unknown suspect—one video was credible and of high content quality, while the other was not credible being inconsistent and of low content quality. Subsequently, participants were asked to rate the credibility of the victim and the testimony. Additionally, a short version of the Acceptance of Modern Myths about Sexual Aggression Scale (AMMSA; Gerger et al. Aggressive Behavior: Official Journal of the International Society for Research on Aggression 33:422–440, 2007) was administered. The results indicated that, despite relatively low levels of rape myth acceptance, it significantly impacted judgments of victim credibility and testimony among the sample of detectives. However, no such impact was observed in the sample of police students. The implications of these findings for understanding the role of rape myth acceptance in the evaluation of real victim statements are discussed.
