Abstract

Guided by Nils Christie's (1986) Ideal Victim framework, the current study examines the effect that victim/offender relationship status (casual vs. serious), victim self-identity (as a "victim" or a "survivor"), and observer gender (woman vs. man) have on victim blame attributions. Data were collected from 329 adult students at a large public university in the Southwest United States using an online, experimental vignette design. Three separate one-way analysis of variances (ANOVAs) were conducted to test the study's three hypotheses. Results suggest that among the study sample, victim/offender relationship status (H1) and victim self-identity (H2) do not significantly affect victim blame attribution towards victims of IPVAW. Results do support H3 suggesting that observer gender does significantly affect victim blame attribution towards victims of IPVAW with men participants attributing more victim blame than women participants. Future research directions to better capture the nuances of (IPVAW) victim/offender relationship status (among "dating" couples) and self-identity of an (IPVAW) victim (as a "victim" or a "survivor") are identified and conceptual replication is encouraged.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2021

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Woerner, Jacqueline

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Sociology

Degree Program

Applied Sociology; Domestic Violence Track

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0008818; DP0026097

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0026097

Language

English

Release Date

December 2021

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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