Attitudes towards wife battering amongst South African police officers.

[摘要] The study aimed to assess the hypothetical conditions under which battery is justified by asample of 225 police officers within the Gauteng area and to explore how these justificationswere related to sex role attitude, The study employed a questionnaire design with theJustification of Abuse Scale used to measure justification, the Attitude Towards WomenScale used to measure sex role attitude and additional demographic questions posed tosubjects. The results showed that the majority of police officers are opposed to the use ofphysical force by a husband towards his wife, but that a substantial minority accept that thereare situations in which beatings are justified. Two distinct factors emerged from a factoranalysis computed on the justification scale. These factors were termed Major provocation(Factor 1) and Minor provocation (Factor 2) Sex role attitude was found to be significantlyrelated to justification, with police officers holding traditional attitudes being less opposed tothe use of physical force and police officers holding egalitarian attitudes being more opposedto the use of physical force by a husband towards his wife. The demographic variables thatwere found to be related to justification beliefs were: age, language group, years of service,rank and level of education.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand