Public Responses to Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: The Influence of Perceived Severity and Personal Responsibility

Abstract

This paper explored public willingness to act when exposed to cases of intimate partner violence against women, by analyzing the influence of perceived severity and personal responsibility on two types of responses: mediating and reporting to the police. Results (N = 419) yielded main effects of personal responsibility for both types of responses. No main effects of perceived severity were found. A significant interaction between perceived severity and personal responsibility was found only for reporting responses. Results are discussed in light of the helping behavior research tradition. Implications for public education and advocacy programs are also considered. Keywords: intimate partner violence, public responses, perceived severity, personal responsibility, violence against women, tolerance.Este trabajo analizó la influencia que la gravedad percibida y el sentimiento personal de responsabilidad tienen en dos tipos de respuestas públicas ante escenarios hipotéticos de violencia doméstica contra la mujer: la mediación y la denuncia. Los resultados (N = 419) mostraron efectos principales del sentimiento de responsabilidad personal para ambos tipos de respuesta. No se observaron efectos principales de la gravedad percibida. Se observó una interacción significativa entre la gravedad percibida y la responsabilidad personal únicamente para las respuestas de denuncia. Los resultados se discuten en términos de la tradición investigadora de la conducta de ayuda. Se consideran las implicaciones de los resultados para la educación pública y la intervención social. Palabras clave: gravedad percibida, responsabilidad personal, respuestas públicas, violencia contra la mujer, violencia del compañero íntimo, tolerancia.

Explaining the Immigration-Partner Violence Link: Attitudes Towards Partner Violence Among Latin-American Immigrants in Spain

“…Results from socio-demographic variables analyses showed that women report a more positive attitude toward reporting partner violence than men. This finding is in line with research suggesting that women perceived partner violence as more severe, are less accepting, and feel more personal responsible to act than men, which suggest greater empathy for the victims [4,66,67]. None of the other sociodemographic controls explores yielded significant differences.…”

Consumo de alcohol en hombres penados por violencia contra la pareja: factores individuales y contextuales

“…Dicha cuestión debería ser clarificada en estudios posteriores. Sin duda, resulta de gran importancia en este ámbito la actitud de tolerancia o intolerancia hacia la violencia doméstica contra la mujer (Gracia y Herrero, 2006b;Gracia, García y Lila, 2009;Lila, Gracia y García, 2010), sin embargo, según muestran los resultados, no parece relacionarse con el consumo de alcohol.…”

Measuring Acceptability of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Development and Validation of the A-IPVAW Scale

“…This instrument presents eight IPVAW situations (e.g., "During an argument, a man hits his partner and afterwards he asks for her forgiveness") to which respondents had to rate the severity of each situation (ranging from 1, not severe at all, to 10, extremely severe). This instrument was validated in the general Spanish population, and with police officers and intimate partner violence offenders, showing acceptable psychometric properties, and has been related to IPVAW victim blaming attitudes, personal responsibility, sexism, and empathy (Gracia et al, 2009;Gracia & Tomás, 2014;Vargas, Lila, & Catalá-Miñana, 2015). The scale showed a good internal consistency in the recruited general sample (Cronbach's α = .89).…”

“…Perceived severity of IPVAW (PS-IPVAW; Gracia, García, & Lila, 2008, 2011. This instrument presents eight IPVAW situations (e.g., "During an argument, a man hits his partner and afterwards he asks for her forgiveness") to which respondents had to rate the severity of each situation (ranging from 1, not severe at all, to 10, extremely severe).…”