Attitudes as Explanations for Aggression Against Family Members (From Out of the Darkness: Contemporary Perspectives on Family Violence, P 151-160, 1997, Glenda K. Kantor, Jana L. Jasinski, eds. - See NCJ-171756)

• NCJ Number: 171767
• Author(s): S D Herzberger; Q H Rueckert
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 10 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter presents observations on the relationship between attitudes about violence and violent behavior.

Abstract

The article reviews development and testing of a new attitudinal measure of violence, assessing justifications for violence, assignment of blame, and tendencies to punish, in situations regarding intimate relationships. The article discusses development and validation of the Attitudes Towards Aggression scale, and examines other studies of attitude-violent behavior relationships. The relationship between attitudes and behavior appears to be consistent across studies. However, the lack of a controlled examination of the relationship precludes a confident conclusion that attitudes in and of themselves make a meaningful difference. Violence within the family is determined in many ways, and studies of the attitudes-violence link must assess this linkage in relation to the larger set of predictors that also have been identified as correlates of aggression. In addition, researchers should test the predictive utility of the attitudes-violence relationship and attend more carefully to the validity of the measures used to assess attitudes. Note, tables, figures, references