Singer Chrissie Hynde is being criticised for suggesting that women who dress provocatively could attract a man to rape them.

The 'Pretenders' star, 63, said she blames herself for being sexually abused in the past.

In an interview with the Sunday Times magazine, Hynde said that when she was 21, a motorcycle gang member agreed to take her to a party, but instead brought her to an empty house and forced her to perform sexual acts under threat of violence.

"Technically speaking, however you want to look at it, this was all my doing and I take full responsibility," she said.

"You can’t f*** about with people, especially people who wear ‘I Heart Rape’ and ‘On Your Knees’ badges ... those motorcycle gangs, that’s what they do.

"You can’t paint yourself into a corner and then say whose brush is this? You have to take responsibility. I mean, I was naive."

She went on to say how she believed women who dress provocatively while drunk in public have themselves to blame if they are raped:

"If I'm walking around in my underwear and I'm drunk, who else's fault can it be?"

But criminologist Charlotte Barlow thinks she's wrong: