Female Aggression Toward Male Intimate Partners: An Examination of Social Norms in a Community-Based Sample

We investigated the effect of assailant gender on injunctive social norms (i.e., beliefs about what ought to happen) regarding violence toward an intimate heterosexual partner. In a random-digit-dialed survey conducted in four languages, 3,769 community-residing adults were presented with five vigne...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology of women quarterly 2005-03, Vol.29 (1), p.78-96
Main Authors: Sorenson, Susan B., Taylor, Catherine A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceptance
Aggression
Aggressiveness
Attitude Measures
Behavior Standards
Domestic violence
Family Violence
Female offenders
Females
Feminism
Feminist psychology
Gender
Gender Differences
Gender studies
Heterosexuals
Interpersonal Relationship
Intimacy
Intimate others
Judgments
Norms
Partners
Psychology
Social Behavior
Social norms
USA
Violence
Women
Women's studies
Womens studies
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Summary:We investigated the effect of assailant gender on injunctive social norms (i.e., beliefs about what ought to happen) regarding violence toward an intimate heterosexual partner. In a random-digit-dialed survey conducted in four languages, 3,769 community-residing adults were presented with five vignettes in which we experimentally manipulated characteristics of the assailant, victim, and incident. We examined the vignette variables and measured respondent characteristics using multivariate logistic regressions. Judgments about women's violence against male intimates (vs. men's violence against female intimates) were less harsh and took contextual factors more fully into account. The type of violence and the presence of a weapon played a central role in respondent judgments. Respondent demographic characteristics were largely unrelated to their judgments.
ISSN:0361-6843
1471-6402
DOI:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2005.00170.x