NCJ Number
138505
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1992) Pages: 189-203
Date Published
1992
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Two versions of the Severity of Violence Against Men Scale (SVAMS) were devised as a counterpart to the Severity of Violence Against Women Scales (SVAWS) to differentiate the effects of female and male violence.
Abstract
A sample of 570 male college students rated on 10-point scales how serious, aggressive, abusive, violent, and threatening it would be if a woman committed each of 46 acts on a man. Eight factors emerged that represent threats of mild, moderate, and serious violence; actual mild, minor, moderate, and serious violence; and sexual violence. A randomly selected sample of 115 men in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex community rated the same acts on seriousness, aggressiveness, and abusiveness. Metroplex community men and students did not differ significantly on the severity of sexual violence or threats of moderate violence but did differ significantly on threats of mild and serious violence and on the four remaining dimensions. In all cases, community men listed more extreme ratings than did the students. Overall, more emotional than physical harm was associated with the acts for both groups. A point of difference emerged between the male and female versions of the scales: for violence committed by women against men, the sexual factor loaded with threats; for violence by men against women, the subscale loaded with the other violent behaviors. 2 tables and 14 references