NCJ Number
118353
Date Published
1989
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This chapter examined the extent to which victims of dating violence reported the abuse to friends, parents, counselors, physicians, or criminal justice authorities.
Abstract
Two random samples of students in upper-level classes were obtained from listings of courses at a large midwestern university during the spring of 1986 and 1987. Students were queried on incidents of physical and sexual abuse sustained with up to four dating partners during the past year and their help-seeking behavior in response to such abuse. The analysis examined whether help-seeking behavior was related to respondent characteristic, dating-relationship characteristics, abuse seriousness, and respondent perceptions of the victimization. Approximately 7 percent of the females and 4 percent of the males felt they had been physically abused by a dating partner, and about 5 percent of the women and 1 percent of the men felt they had been sexually victimized. Generally, the study found that women were more likely to report abuse than men. Also, when abuse was sex-related, the probability of reporting it markedly diminished. The probability that abuse would be reported increased when the victim perceived an incident as abusive. The seriousness of the abuse was more important in predicting the help-seeking of males compared to females. For females, perceptions of abuse dominated the models. There was some evidence for a stress theory of help-seeking but no evidence to support the hypothesis of learned helplessness. Recommendations for further study are offered, and implications for policy and practice are discussed. 3 tables, 33 references.