DAMNING EVIDENCE that public attitudes towards rape victims are undermining Scotland's judicial system is revealed today in a major new study obtained by the Sunday Herald.

Researchers who interviewed more than 700 potential rape trial jurors between 18 and 65 years old for the charity Rape Crisis Scotland found that 40% felt women contribute to an attack if they put themselves in "risky" situations, such as willingly going home with a man.

Although 39% of people thought the victim is not to blame for being raped, 61% were "unsure" or disagreed in various degrees. Rape Crisis Scotland said the results are "startling" and highlighted the urgent need for a major advertising campaign to challenge male preconceptions about how women consent to sex.

The study is the first to target the notion frequently brought up in trials that women "invite" rape. Despite recent widespread changes in the conduct of court officials and the way evidence about an alleged victim's background is led, only 3%-4% of cases are successfully prosecuted in Scotland.

Police and anti-rape campaign chiefs also want to end a "blame culture" which sees many members of the public believe that women bring on attacks by being drunk, wearing revealing clothing and flirting. They say men must take on more responsibility for understanding what defines consent. The Law Commission is due to report to the government within the next two weeks on the issue before a new rape bill is launched next year.

The leader of the research team - which surveyed male and female focus groups of eight people each in Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, rural communities in Tayside and Jedburgh, in the Borders, along with 686 people online - claimed the study highlights the stereotypical "baggage" about female behaviour that many jurors take into trials.

Rape Crisis Scotland commissioned the study to gauge reaction from its target audience to a proposed £384,000 billboard campaign entitled, This Is Not An Invitation To Rape Me.

The government-backed campaign will feature images of men or women in socially recognisable situations to get across the message that because they are in these situations, it does not automatically mean a woman is consenting to sex.

The charity hopes to display the images on billboards, bus stops and posters in men's toilets of bars, clubs and restaurants. It is inspired by a successful campaign run by the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.

One of the proposed photographs includes a man and a women in a taxi. It suggests the couple are returning home after meeting on a night out, and places a question mark over the man's motives.

Sandy Brindley, the charity's national co-ordinator, said: "The idea came up quite strongly from the focus groups that if a woman goes back to a man's flat, she knows what she is letting herself in for, that somehow she is consenting to sex. We were quite startled by that. It is the area where the highest level of blame is being attributed against a victim's behaviour."

Brindley was shocked by the views of some young men and said it showed the "huge amount of work" the government needs to do to educate young people about sexual consent and tackle stereotypes in pornography and other media.

The study also found 26% of people questioned agreed that women contribute to being raped if they are drunk; 23% if they are involved in some form of sexual activity; and 20% if they are wearing revealing clothing.

"I was surprised at some of the attitudes, particularly among the younger men who thought that once a man is sexually aroused, he can't stop, so therefore what can women expect if things get out of hand," added Brindley.

"One comment that struck me was that if a woman acts like a slut, she deserves what she gets if things get out of hand.

"There needs to be a fundamental shift in society's attitudes to rape, and more broadly women's sexuality if we are going to get to a position where we have justice for women who have been raped."

"The campaign aims to create scenarios, turn them on their head and say, This is not an invitation to rape me.' It will aim to get across the message there are no circumstances that women are inviting rape."

Brindley also wants the adverts to change the belief that most rapes are by strangers, when in fact it accounts for 10% of offences, according to Strathclyde Police figures. The force says that 45% of rapes are by husbands, partners or short-term acquaintances.

The survey also found 42% of people agreed the legal system is "unsympathetic" to victims and that an increasing number of cases go unreported.

Mark Cuthbert, managing director of Edinburgh-based Progressive, the market research firm that carried out the survey, said: "The campaign needs to address some of the preconceptions and baggage about lifestyles." He added that the public's understanding of what sexual consent is was, at best, "cloudy".

The survey's results will be presented to the Justice Department early next year. By then the Law Commission will have delivered its findings on whether consent should be redefined legally, paving the way for the Rape and Sexual Offences Bill to be introduced in May.

On Friday, the Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini QC told a Glasgow conference on sex offences that attitudes must change before further progress can be made on rape issues. She said: "It is vital we remember that people deal differently with stressful situations and that the preconceptions we may have about a typical victim can be as wrong as those stereotypes about a typical' sex offender."