NCJ Number
217310
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 21 Issue: 8 Dated: November 2006 Pages: 487-495
Date Published
November 2006
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This study examined the association between a person's measured pattern of aggression and his/her attitudes toward domestic violence in a sample of 43 (14 females and 29 males) African-American undergraduate college students.
Abstract
This study found that as self-reports of physical aggression increased, more favorable attitudes toward wife beating increased. As judgments about wife batterers became more punitive, reports of personal physical aggression correspondingly declined. Women were more punitive in their reactions to batterers, more sympathetic to victims, and more negative toward wife beating than men. Both men and women tended to have attitudes toward batterers that were between the neutral and slightly negative assessments. This study should promote interest in investigating how culture influences the relationship between physical aggression and attitudes toward the perpetrators of domestic violence. Each participant was administered the Inventory of Beliefs About Wife Beating (IBWB), the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ), and a brief demographic survey. The IBWB is a 34-item measure of attitudes toward spousal abuse. Five subscales represent five levels of attitudes toward intimate partner violence that range from "Wife beating is justified" to "Offender should be punished." The AQ is a 29-item measure of aggression. Four subscales obtain self-reports of physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility. The total score is a measure of "dispositional aggression." 4 tables, 41 references, and appendix A-B