NCJ Number
225566
Journal
Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, & Trauma Volume: 17 Issue: 4 Dated: 2008 Pages: 478-505
Date Published
2008
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This study examined the influence of gender stereotypes on how undergraduate college students and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) rated the abusiveness of intimate partner violence through responses to vignettes that portrayed every possible gender combination of victim and perpetrator in heterosexual and homosexual intimate relationships.
Abstract
The study found that both college students and RCMP officers rated abuse severity highest for the vignettes that portrayed male perpetrators and female victims of domestic violence, regardless of the gender of the respondent. Comparatively, however, RCMP officers rated the severity of abuse in female-male, male-male, and female-female scenarios higher than did the college students. Although the RCMP officers are apparently less biased than college students in their ratings of abuse under various combinations of perpetrator and victim according to gender and sexual orientation, gender bias and sexual-orientation bias still pervade views of the relative severity of intimate partner violence. There is clearly a need for improved educational and training initiatives that target both the general public and policing agencies. Forty-one men and 67 women completed surveys by college students, and 62 RCMP officers (35 men and 27 women) completed surveys. 3 tables, 57 references, and appended sample vignette