'Yeah but, it's funny if she does it to him': comparing ratings of acceptability, humour, and perpetrator and victim blame in female-to-male versus male-to-female domestic violence scenarios

Abstract

Background: Data suggests that an increasing number of women are being arrested for intimate partner assault (Martin, 1997). Research has also shown how male and female offenders may have different reasons for offending and may require different domestic violence programs to reduce repeat offending (Henning, Jones & Holdfold, 2005). However, relatively little is known about how male-to-female versus female-to-male domestic violence (DV) is judged by others. Methods: This study presented 20 male undergraduates and 20 female undergraduates with vignettes depicting a scenario of either male-to-female or female-to-male DV. Participants rated these scenarios on how acceptable and humorous the scenario was, as well as how much they attributed blame to the victim and perpetrator. Participants also completed a questionnaire assessing the relationship of power to sex (Chapleau & Oswald, 2010). Results: 2 (Gender) x 2 (Vignette Type) ANOVAs were computed for each scale. Results showed that whilst acceptability was low for both scenarios, participants found female-to-male DV more humorous. In addition, whilst across both scenarios participants placed high blame on the perpetrator, participants placed more blame on the victim in the female-to-male DV scenario. In addition, for all participants, ratings given to DV scenarios were positively correlated with how strongly they related power-to-sex. Conclusions: These results indicate that, even though it is viewed as equally unacceptable, both men and women view female-to-male DV as ‘funnier’, and also believe that the victim was more to blame in these scenarios – suggesting that overall DV towards men may be taken less seriously. This study demonstrates that, in addition to different DV treatment programmes for offender, attitudes towards male victims of DV also need to be targeted