Eleanor Li
I am a researcher in Criminology interested in examining victim-blaming behaviours/attitudes in sexual violence, specifically rape myths. My research mainly focuses on cross-cultural investigation of rape myth acceptance between the UK and China, with an ultimate goal to develop an intervention program that can reduce victim-blaming behaviours and secondary victimization for victims of sexual violence.
I am attracted to this field due to the increasing prevalence of victim-blaming beliefs that I noticed in today's society. This phenomenon has led to destructive impacts on the victims and the criminal justice system, which include long-lasting psychological harm, reduced reporting rate, injustice sentences, etc.
However, there is limited research addressing such issues in China. Therefore, I hope to contribute my work and findings to this field by developing a comprehensive understanding of predictive factors of rape myths and victim-blaming beliefs in China, as well as developing an effective rape myths intervention program for front-line workers (e.g. police officers).
The book I am holding is from the well-known psychologist Philip Zimbardo. It is about how good people turn evil, which is also the book that inspired me about the influence of environment on human behaviour and brought up my interest in Criminal Psychology.