The moderating role of victim-related education in social work: examining the relationship between unjust/just-world beliefs and prejudice towards crime victims

This study aims to examine the relationship between social work students' unjust/just world beliefs and their prejudiced attitudes toward victims, as well as the moderating effect of victim-related education on this relationship. The study's sample comprised 412 social work students. Just World Belief Scale and the Perceptions of Victims Scale was used. The regression analysis, underpinned by the bootstrap technique via the Process Macro plug-in, was utilized to ascertain the moderating effect of victim-related training programmes. Results indicated that unjust world beliefs did not interact significantly with victim-related education in predicting prejudice. In contrast, victim-focused education significantly moderated the association between just world beliefs and prejudicial attitudes. Among students without such training, stronger endorsement of just world beliefs was associated with a marked increase in prejudice toward victims. However, this effect was substantially weakened among students who had received victim-related instruction. This study has produced two significant insights: First, pervasive societal judgments internalized by students can shape their attitudes toward victimized groups. Second, targeted educational interventions can attenuate the biasing influence of just world beliefs. Incorporating victimization-focused content into social work curricula is thus essential for mitigating prejudicial tendencies and fostering more equitable, empathetic professional practice.