Are College Students' Attitudes Related to Their Application of Sanctions for Campus Sexual Assault Cases?

With growing attention to adjudication of campus sexual assault cases, more is known regarding students' views of sexual assault, but little the literature focuses on how students perceive "justice" in terms of assigning sanctions or guilt/responsibility for such cases. The present study focused on understanding whether college students' preformed attitudes and beliefs were associated with the severity of sanctions they applied across a range of sexual assault cases as well as their assignments of guilt and responsibility to the parties involved. To determine students' attitudes and beliefs mediating effects on sanction choices, five scales (i.e., rape myth acceptance, downplaying the severity of rape, sexism, just world beliefs, and right-wing authoritarianism) were adapted and used for this project. College students (n = 846) responded to one of four versions of a randomly distributed survey each containing eight vignettes varied to represent levels of 14 factors employed because of their relevance to campus sexual assault cases. Across all versions, sexism was associated with increased responsibility given to the victim. In addition, stronger endorsement of both downplaying significance of rape and rape myth acceptance scales were associated with giving a milder sanction to the perpetrator and increased responsibility and guilt assigned to the victim. Just world beliefs and right-wing authoritarianism associations were inconsistent across the four versions, suggesting these beliefs were situation-specific. Preformed attitudes that are more directly related to the context of sexual assault influenced the designation of sanctions applied to perpetrators and perceptions of guilt and responsibility. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for research and prevention programming.

Is Religious Self-Regulation a Risk or Protective Factor for Men's Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration?

Recent research has indicated that religiosity has multiple dimensions and that religious self-regulation may be a more effective predictor of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration than other measures of religiosity, such as frequency of prayer or church attendance. Nonetheless, studies have produced inconsistent results regarding the associations between religious self-regulation and IPV perpetration. Moreover, no studies have included self-reported level of religiosity in addition to religious self-regulation in predictive models of IPV perpetration. The present study sought to address the following research question: What is the association between religious self-regulation and men's IPV perpetration, accounting for self-reported level of religiosity? A convenience sample of 289 men, who had been in their current committed heterosexual relationship for at least one year, were recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk and responded to an online survey. Logistic and negative binomial regression analyses indicated that introjected religious self-regulation was significantly positively associated with physical, psychological, and sexual IPV perpetration, while identified religious self-regulation was significantly negatively associated with physical, psychological, and sexual IPV perpetration, supporting both hypotheses. These findings have implications for faith leaders and secular service providers seeking to develop effective, culturally sensitive, and empirically informed IPV intervention and prevention strategies.

Firearm-related Abuse and Protective Order Requests Among Intimate Partner Violence Victims.

Firearms play a critical role in the murder of intimate partner violence (IPV) victims and there is evidence that laws prohibiting protective order (PO) respondents from possessing a firearm reduce IPV fatalities. However, little research has compared specific abuse tactics involving firearms among victims who have and have not sought a PO against an abuser. This study investigates IPV victims' experiences with a range of firearm-related abuse tactics across victim race/ethnicity, in addition to the relationship between firearm IPV and PO requests, above and beyond IPV not involving firearms. Questionnaires were administered to 215 female victims recruited from six domestic violence shelters in Texas. Over one-half of victims who sought a PO were threatened to be shot by their abuser and victims who experienced high levels of firearm abuse incurred a 302% increase in the odds of requesting a PO. There were no significant differences between White, Black, and Hispanic victims regarding firearm IPV tactics. The results shed light on the magnitude of risk IPV victims can experience when seeking a PO against an abusive partner.

Alcohol Use, Hostile Sexism, and Religious Self-Regulation: Investigating Risk and Protective Factors of IPV Perpetration.

Research suggests that the relationship between alcohol use and intimate partner violence (IPV) is moderated by a range of other factors. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between alcohol use, hostile sexism, and religious self-regulation with perpetration. Using a national sample of 255 men, we found that hostile sexism was associated with physical violence toward a partner and alcohol use was positively associated with psychological abuse toward a partner. With regard to religious self-regulation, we found that introjected religious self-regulation was positively associated with hostile sexism and positively associated with perpetrating physical IPV. Identified religious self-regulation was negatively associated with physical violence perpetration. We also found significant interactions among our independent measures on physical IPV perpetration. These analyses suggest that increased alcohol consumption elevates the risk for physical violence perpetration among men who are high in introjected religious self-regulation and low in hostile sexism, while reducing the risk for perpetration in men who are high in identified religious self-regulation and low in hostile sexism. Implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.

Great Sexpectations: The Impact of Participant Gender, Defendant Desirability, and Date Cost on Attributions of a Date Rape Victim and Defendant.

We investigated the effect of the desirability of the defendant and the cost of a date on how participants assigned blame in a date rape context. Community participants (N = 211) read one of four date rape trial summaries that differed based on the two manipulated independent variables: the desirability of the defendant (i.e., high vs. low desirability) and the cost of the date (i.e., expensive [US$175] vs. inexpensive [US$30]). Participants then rated the victim and defendant on various attributes related to the trial (credibility, blame, and guilt) and post-date sexual behavior (expectations, want, and deservingness of sex). Overall, men viewed the victim more negatively and the defendant more positively than women. Participants in the high defendant desirability condition also viewed the victim as having higher want of sex following the date and rated the defendant as more credible. With regard to the cost of date manipulation, men viewed the defendant as more credible when a desirable defendant paid for an inexpensive date in comparison with an undesirable defendant. However, when the date was expensive, women viewed the desirable defendant as more credible than the undesirable defendant. Finally, we also found that participants' perceptions of the victim's expectations and want for sex and the defendant's deservingness for sex mediated the effects of participant gender and defendant desirability on victim and defendant blame.

Ambivalent Sexism, Alcohol Use, and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration.

Research on risk factors for men's perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) has shown a high correlation with problem alcohol use. Additional studies, however, indicate that the alcohol-IPV link is neither simple nor necessarily direct and that a range of factors may moderate this relationship. Using a national, community-based sample of 255 men, the present study examined the moderating effects of ambivalent sexism (i.e., hostile and benevolent sexism) on the relationship between alcohol use and IPV perpetration. The findings show that both greater alcohol consumption and high hostile sexism are positively associated with IPV perpetration, and that hostile sexism moderates the alcohol-IPV relationship for perpetration of physical IPV, but not for psychological IPV. Moreover, high levels of alcohol consumption have a greater impact on physical IPV perpetration for men low in hostile sexism than for men high in hostile sexism, lending support to the multiple threshold model of the alcohol-IPV link. Implications of the findings for prevention, intervention, and future research are discussed.

The Impact of Gender Stereotypes on Legal Perceptions of Lesbian Intimate Partner Violence.

The present study examined legal perceptions of lesbian intimate partner violence (IPV) in an experimental context. Undergraduate women and men from the Southeastern United States ( N = 217) read a trial summary in which the defendant was charged with physically assaulting her same-sex partner. The trial varied as to whether the victim and defendant were depicted via images as either feminine or masculine. Participants rendered verdicts and made judgments about the victim and defendant (e.g., credibility). Results indicated that the victim's and defendant's masculine or feminine appearance affected these judgments. Female participants viewed a masculine victim as more credible than a feminine victim when the defendant was masculine. When the victim was masculine, they viewed a masculine defendant as more responsible for the victim's injuries than a feminine defendant. Male participants had higher sympathy for a masculine versus feminine victim overall, but had more anger toward a masculine defendant versus a feminine defendant accused of assaulting a feminine victim. Finally, fewer participants mentioned the defendant's history of violence as a reason for a guilty of felony verdict for a feminine victim with a feminine defendant versus all other combinations of victim and defendant masculine/feminine appearance. Results are discussed in terms of gender stereotypes influencing legal decision-making in IPV cases among lesbian couples.

From Blue to Green: The Development and Implementation of a Therapeutic Horticulture Program for Residents of a Battered Women's Shelter.

The delivery of therapeutic services to clients is influenced by service providers' understanding of the "fit" of a specific program with their service mandate as well as their perceptions of the potential benefits of the program. This article discusses the development and implementation of a therapeutic horticulture (TH) program at a battered women's shelter that serves 17 counties in Central Kentucky. Through semistructured interviews, we gauge the shelter staff's perceptions of the relationship of the TH program to the shelter's overall mission; their sense of the program's benefits for residents, for the shelter as a community organization, and for themselves; and their concerns about the TH program. We consider how these findings may impact future programming at the shelter, and we discuss plans for further evaluation of the TH program in terms of its impact on shelter residents' long-term outcomes.