Attitudinal Acceptance of Intimate Partner Violence Among U.S. Adults

Abstract

Attitudinal acceptance of intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important correlate of violent behavior. This study examined acceptance of IPV using data collected from a nationally representative telephone survey of 5,238 adults. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to test for associations between sociodemographic characteristics, exposure to violence, question order, and acceptance of hitting a spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend under specific circumstances. Depending on the circumstance examined, acceptance of IPV was significantly higher among participants who were male and younger than 35; were non-White; were divorced, separated, or had never married; had not completed high school; had a low household income; or were victims of violence within the past 12 months. Participants were more accepting of women hitting men; they also were consistent’; more likely to report tolerance of IPV if they were asked first about women hitting men rather than men hitting women. Reports of IPV tolerance need to be interpreted within the context of the survey. Efforts to change IPV attitudes can be tailored to specific IPV circumstances and subgroups, and these efforts should emphasize that the use of physical violence is unacceptable to both genders.

Testing predictions from the male control theory of men's partner violence

“…The findings for women would suggest that they are less inhibited in physically aggressing to a male partner than they are to another woman, perhaps because they know that chivalry will tend to prevent retaliation by a partner. This is consistent with studies showing a degree of social acceptance of women's physical aggression to partners (Harris & Cook, 1994;Simon et al, 2001;. It also partially supports the findings of Felson, Ackerman, and Yeon (2003) who found that men are more inhibited about using violence against their wives whereas women do not have such inhibitions about violence towards their husbands.…”

“…This supports the claim (e.g., Felson, 2000Felson, , 2002 that norms of chivalry cause men to inhibit physical aggression towards partners, and that women do not owing to the lack of social sanctions associated with their aggression. There are also studies demonstrating more social acceptance of women's than men's physical aggression to partners (Harris & Cook, 1994;Simon et al, 2001;: this raises the possibility of women's aggression to male partners being disinhibited compared to that towards other women.…”

Transforming a flawed policy: A call to revive psychology and science in domestic violence research and practice

“…Simply put, the evidence for theoretical patriarchy as a "cause" of wife assault is scant and contradicted by numerous studies: male dominant couples constitute only 9.6% of all couples (Coleman & Straus, 1985); women are at least as violent as men (Archer, 2000); women are more likely to use severe violence against nonviolent men than the converse (Stets & Straus, 1992a,b); powerlessness rather than power seems related to male violence; there are data contradicting the idea that men in North America find violence against their wives acceptable (Dutton, 1994;Simon et al, 2001) and that abusiveness is higher in lesbian relationships than in heterosexual relationships (Lie, Schilit, Bush, Montague, & Reyes, 1991) suggesting that intimacy and psychological factors regulating intimacy are more important than sexism (Dutton, 1994). The research evidence has not favored the simplistic patriarchal view of domestic violence: that male intimate violence is a form of gender political suppression.…”

“…Could this not also be true for unmeasured beliefs and attitudes in the females? Simon et al (2001), in a methodologically sound study with a large and representative sample, found that only 2% of US men agree with the statement "it's ok for a man to slap his wife to keep her in line." Normative support for wife assault simply does not exist.…”

“…Furthermore, evidence speaks strongly against any normative acceptance of wife assault. Data from a large, nationally representative sample of 5238 adults in the US found that acceptance of male to female violence was low in all sub-samples, regardless of gender or ethnicity (Simon et al, 2001). Overall about only 9.8% of males (and 7.2% of females) approved of a man hitting a woman even "if she hits him first."…”