NCJ Number
159217
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 10 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1995) Pages: 143- 151
Date Published
1995
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Attitudes of third parties toward spouse abuse in cases which both partners are violent, one as the instigator and the other in self-defense, were examined in a study in which participants read a fictitious newspaper report of a domestic assault incident and then filled about rating scales about the participants and the event.
Abstract
The scenario described either an asymmetric battering in which one person instigated the violence and was much more violent than the other or a symmetrical battering that was more of a mutual fight. Both scenarios ended with one person seriously injuring the other. Each scenario had two versions, in which either the husband or the wife instigated the violence. The 154 participants were students at Kansas State University and received partial course credit. Results revealed that the person who instigated the violence was regarded much more harshly and was given more responsibility for their actions in both the symmetric and asymmetric batterings. The less violent partner in the asymmetric situation was regarded as having more right to use force; in the symmetric battering, both partners were assigned blame. Tables and 21 references (Author abstract modified)