College Students' Beliefs About Wife Battering and Marital Rape in the United States and Japan

• NCJ Number: 113295
• Author(s): I H Frieze; M Zubritzky
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 8 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Paper presented at the Third National Family Violence Research Conference, July 1987, University of New Hampshire

Annotation

Cultural differences in attitudes toward wife battering and marital rape were examined in questionnaire data from 113 U.S. and 90 Japanese university students.

Abstract

Questions concerning wife battering and marital rape were included with seven other sections examining beliefs about the causes of various aspects of daily life. There was little acceptance of either behavior by the students overall, although both student groups showed less sympathy for the victims of marital rape than for victims of battering. As expected, Japanese students were more accepting of husbands hitting wives, but they also were more accepting of wives hitting husbands. Compared to U.S. students, Japanese students were significantly more likely to blame the couple or the wife than the husband in cases of battering. For marital rape, there was a strong tendency to blame the husband, and there were no differences between cultures. Both groups viewed battering and marital rape as relatively common. Other data indicate that U.S. students viewed the battering as more likely to recur and as more common than did Japanese students. Contrary to expectations, no sex differences in attitudes were found. 1 table and 14 references.