NCJ Number
202969
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 30 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2003 Pages: 584-601
Date Published
October 2003
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article discusses factors that influence responsibility attribution to wife abuse.
Abstract
There is no available study that explores how Chinese law enforcement personnel assign responsibility to abused wives and their abusers, which has important prevention and intervention implications. Past studies on Western police samples have shown that attitudes toward women as well as perceived prevalence of wife abuse situations and their negative effects on victims and society are related to responsibility attribution to abused wives and their abusers. This study hypothesized that a low level of responsibility attribution to abused wives would be related to Chinese police officers’ liberal gender attitudes and perceptions of wife abuse as frequent and having serious negative effects. This study also hypothesized that demographic variables such as gender, age, educational attainment, and years of experience would be related to Chinese police officers’ responsibility attribution to wife abuse. A total of 499 (322 males and 177 females) Chinese police officers participated in the study. Results show that responsibility attributed to victims and abusers was generally greater for physical than for nonphysical wife abuse situations. The level of responsibility assigned to abused wives was inversely related to that assigned to their abusers for both nonphysical and physical wife abuse. Among various predictor variables, responsibility attributed to wife abusers was best predicted by the level of responsibility attributed to abused wives. Demographic characteristics, gender attitudes, and perceptions of wife abuse were also related to how Chinese police officers assign responsibility to abused wives and their abusers. Predictors of responsibility attribution for nonphysical and physical wife abuse are largely similar, albeit with some slight variations. Among the predictor variables, attitudes toward women were the most salient in predicting responsibility attribution. These results are generally in line with previous studies that show people with nontraditional gender attitudes are more likely to reject wife abuse myths and disapprove of men’s use of violence to dominate over their spouses, which in turn are associated with less victim-blaming behaviors and less sympathy toward wife abusers. 2 tables, 1 note, 45 references