Responsibility Attribution for Violence Against Women: A Study of Chinese Public Service Professionals

This study examined how Chinese public service professionals attributed responsibility to victims and perpetrators of violence against women (VAW). A total of 2,308 Chinese public service professionals in Hong Kong completed questionnaires on attitudes toward women, VAW-related perceptions, and assignment of responsibility to actors in written VAW vignettes. Compared to agency professionals consisting of medical doctors, lawyers, and police officers, communal professionals consisting of psychologists, social workers, and nurses attributed a higher level of responsibility to VAW victims and perpetrators. For both professional groups, attitudes toward women and educational attainment were the most salient predictors of responsibility attribution to VAW victims and perpetrators. Perceived VAW effects on victims were also a robust predictor of responsibility attribution to perpetrators. With regard to group differences, gender was predictive of responsibility attribution for communal but not for agency professionals. Except for perpetrator responsibility attribution for agency professionals, age was also predictive of how professionals assigned responsibility to VAW victims and perpetrators.

[1]  M. Koss.  Blame, shame, and community: justice responses to violence against women. , 2000, The American psychologist.

[2]  Regina A. Schuller,et al.  Police Responses to Sexual Assault Complaints: The Role of Perpetrator/Complainant Intoxication , 2000, Law and human behavior.

[3]  C. Tang,et al.  Exploring how Chinese define violence against women: A focus group study in Hong Kong , 2000 .

[4]  Angela M. Moe.  Battered Women in the Restraining Order Process: Observations on a Court Advocacy Program , 2000 .

[5]  Wang Xingjuan.  Why Are Beijing Women Beaten by Their Husbands? , 1999 .

[6]  Ellen M. Bublick.  Citizen No-Duty Rules: Rape Victims and Comparative Fault , 1999 .

[7]  C. Shavers.  Women at Risk: Domestic Violence and Womenʼs Health , 1999 .

[8]  C. Tang,et al.  Effects of Gender and Profession Type on Definitions of Violence Against Women in Hong Kong , 1997, Sex roles.

[9]  J. Peipert,et al.  Violence against women: provider barriers to intervention in emergency departments. , 1997, Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

[10]  A. R. Lang,et al.  Attributions About Acquaintance Rape: The Role of Alcohol and Individual Differences1 , 1997 .

[11]  Lisa Frohmann,et al.  Convictability and discordant locales: Reproducing race, class, and gender ideologies in prosecutorial decisionmaking. , 1997 .

[12]  Mark A. Whatley.  Victim characteristics influencing attributions of responsibility to rape victims: A meta-analysis , 1996 .

[13]  B. Kopper.  Gender, gender identity, rape myth acceptance, and time of initial resistance on the perception of acquaintance rape blame and avoidability , 1996 .

[14]  T. Nelson.  Violence against women. , 1996, World watch.

[15]  M. Yik,et al.  How Do Chinese College Students Define Sexual Harassment? , 1995 .

[16]  Loretta J. Stalans,et al.  Police Referrals to Shelters and Mental Health Treatment: Examining Their Decisions in Domestic Assault Cases , 1995 .

[17]  A. Okamura,et al.  Asian, Pacific Island, and Filipino Americans and Sexual Child Abuse , 1995 .

[18]  Loretta J. Stalans,et al.  How novice and experienced officers interpret wife assaults: normative and efficiency frames , 1995 .

[19]  M. Morris,et al.  Culture and Cause: American and Chinese Attributions for Social and Physical Events , 1994 .

[20]  S. Bell,et al.  Understanding Attributions of Blame in Stranger Rape and Date Rape Situations: An Examination of Gender, Race, Identification, and Students' Social Perceptions of Rape Victims1 , 1994 .

[21]  Alice M. Home.  Attributing Responsibility and Assessing Gravity in Wife Abuse Situations , 1994 .

[22]  L. Schneider,et al.  Effects of victim gender and physical vs. psychological trauma/injury on observers' perceptions of sexual assault and its aftereffects , 1994 .

[23]  L. Fitzgerald,et al.  No Safe Haven: Male Violence Against Women at Home, at Work, and in the Community , 1994 .

[24]  P. Wagner,et al.  Blame of victim and perpetrator in rape versus theft. , 1994, The Journal of social psychology.

[25]  K. Chin.  Out-of-Town Brides: International Marriage and Wife Abuse among Chinese Immigrants , 1994 .

[26]  M. Foddy,et al.  The role of observer attitudes in judgments of blame in cases of wife assault , 1993 .

[27]  L. Wrightsman,et al.  Rape: The Misunderstood Crime , 1993 .

[28]  P. Pollard.  Judgements about victims and attackers in depicted rapes: a review. , 1992, The British journal of social psychology.

[29]  C. E. Willis.  The effect of sex role stereotype, victim and defendant race, and prior relationship on rape culpability attributions , 1992 .

[30]  L. Schneider.  Perceptions of single and multiple incident rape , 1992 .

[31]  L. V. Davis,et al.  The Problem of Wife Abuse: The Interrelationship of Social Policy and Social Work Practice , 1992 .

[32]  Em Malos.  Working for Change, The Movement Against Domestic Violence , 1992 .

[33]  M. Shepard.  Feminist Practice Principles for Social Work Intervention in Wife Abuse , 1991 .

[34]  F. Cheung,et al.  The attitudes toward rape victims scale: Reliability and validity in a chinese context , 1991 .

[35]  Eve S. Buzawa,et al.  Domestic Violence: The Criminal Justice Response , 1990 .

[36]  M. Koss.  The women's mental health research agenda. Violence against women. , 1990, The American psychologist.

[37]  F D Fincham,et al.  Attributions in marriage: review and critique. , 1990, Psychological bulletin.

[38]  L. Gutiérrez.  Social Work Theories and Practice with Battered Women: A Conflict-of-Values Analysis , 1987 .

[39]  P. Resick,et al.  Women’s Attributions of Responsibility for Date Rape: The Influence of Empathy and Sex-Role Stereotyping , 1987, Violence and Victims.

[40]  D. Saunders,et al.  Attitudes About Woman Abuse Among Police Officers, Victims, and Victim Advocates , 1986 .

[41]  K. Shaver,et al.  On causality, responsibility, and self-blame: a theoretical note. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[42]  C. Muehlenhard,et al.  Is Date Rape Justifiable?: The Effects of Dating Activity, Who Initiated, Who Paid, and Men's Attitudes toward Women , 1985 .

[43]  J. Howard.  Societal Influences on Attribution: Blaming Some Victims More Than Others , 1984 .

[44]  J. Karuza,et al.  Relative preference and adaptiveness of behavioral blame for observers of rape victims. , 1984, Journal of personality.

[45]  Sheila R. Deitz,et al.  Attribution of responsibility for rape: The influence of observer empathy, victim resistance, and victim attractiveness , 1984 .

[46]  R. L. Shotland,et al.  Just because she doesn't want to doesn't mean it's rape: an experimentally based causal model of the perception of rape in a dating situation. , 1983, Social psychology quarterly.

[47]  L. V. Davis,et al.  Attitudes of service providers toward domestic violence , 1981 .

[48]  P. R. Sanday.  The socio-cultural context of rape: A cross-cultural study. , 1981 .

[49]  J. Krulewitz.  Sex Differences in Evaluations of Female and Male Victims' Responses to Assault , 1981 .

[50]  M. Burt,et al.  Rape Myths, Rape Definitions, and Probability of Conviction , 1981 .

[51]  M. Burt.  Cultural myths and supports for rape. , 1980, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[52]  Hubert S. Feild,et al.  Attitudes toward rape: A comparative analysis of police, rapists, crisis counselors, and citizens. , 1978 .

[53]  Dale T. Miller,et al.  Just world research and the attribution process: Looking back and ahead. , 1978 .

[54]  E. Beller,et al.  Against our will: Men, women, and rape , 1978 .

[55]  Robert L. Helmreich,et al.  A short version of the Attitudes toward Women Scale (AWS) , 1973 .

[56]  E. Walster,et al.  Assignment of responsibility for an accident. , 1966, Journal of personality and social psychology.