title: The Role of Sexist Attitudes and Self-Control in Predicting Intimate Partner Violence and Specialisation
Creators: name: Wolbers, Heather L
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: intimate partner violence
subject: male and female Australian
subject: sexist attitudes
subject: IPV offending
subject: self-control
subject: IPV perpetrators
subject: IPV aetiology

description: This thesis builds upon the current knowledge of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration to better understand the predictors of this crime within male and female Australian community samples. The current project is guided by feminist and self-control theories, and as such focuses on two predictors of IPV in particular, which are the extent to which perpetrators hold sexist attitudes and their level of self-control. The thesis additionally examines male and female perpetrators’ patterns of offending with a focus on their degree of specialisation. For the purpose of this thesis, IPV specialisation is defined as the extent to which an IPV offender reports IPV offences exclusively, as opposed to reporting a broader range of offence types, which is referred to as offence versatility or generalisation. Exploration into the psychological predictors of IPV and IPV specialisation in separate male and female samples can subsequently guide prevention, intervention and crime control strategies intended to ameliorate this serious problem. IPV offenders are not a homogeneous class of individuals. Understanding the differences within the population based on gender, psychology, pers nality and levels of specialisation is of vital importance as different types of offenders may require different types of criminal justice responses. It is of particular importance to investigate differences in IPV offenders based on the versatility of the crimes they have engaged in as specialised IPV offenders may have meaningful differences in their motivation for IPV than perpetrators who are more versatile in their offending. Based on theoretical and empirical literature, these meaningful differences may arise from levels of sexist attitudes and self-control. By exploring how these factors differ across offender type, this thesis further builds on knowledge regarding diversities within IPV offender populations, which is important for designing and delivering effective criminal justice responses to offending. The current study integrates and draws from three bodies of literature within the field of criminology: (1) the literature exploring the relationship between sexist attitudes and IPV offending, (2) the literature testing the relationship between self-control and IPV perpetration, and (3) the literature examining whether (and the extent to which) IPV perpetrators specialise. While these research topics have been studied as separate areas of inquiry in the past, there are few published empirical studies that have simultaneously tested the association between IPV specialisation, sexist attitudes and self-control within the analytic framework of a single study. Simultaneously looking at levels of sexist attitudes and self-control is important at these theoretically and empirically supported predictors of IPV and IPV specialisation can be directly compared and consolidated. In order to explore the integration of three bodies of work, the thesis focuses upon each literature separately with an emphasis on acknowledging and, if possible, addressing methodological and theoretical limitations from prior work. The thesis also builds on each body of work by not only comparing theoretical constructs, but by also investigating how they are interrelated and how their integration into a single analytic framework may further clarify and build upon existing theories of IPV aetiology. To empirically investigate this topic, primary self-report data were collected using a computer-administered online survey advertised through social media to yield a sample of both males and females drawn from the Australian community. The survey instrument included measures of IPV perpetration frequency (a reduced version of Straus et al.’s (1996) revised Conflict Tactics Scale), perpetration of non-IPV offences (a scale developed for the current study), sexist attitudes (an adapted version of Glick and Fiske’s (1996) Ambivalent Sexism Inventory), self-control (Tangney et al.’s (2004) Brief Self-Control Scale), and demographic measures. The analysis sample was comprised of 189 males and 173 females. The analytical approach primarily included regression analyses to determine the predictive ability of self-control and sexist attitudes to explain variance in IPV frequency and IPV specialisation. Specialisation was measured using four validated methods: the Multilevel Item Response Theory Approach, a Diversity Index, an Offence Specialisation Coefficient and Latent Class Analysis. Results demonstrate that self-control and sexist attitudes can help us understand the frequency of IPV offending for both male and female perpetrators. High sexist attitudes and low self-control were associated with an increase in the frequency of IPV perpetration. Additionally, self-control can help us to better understand variation in the levels of IPV specialisation across individuals for both gender groups. Specifically, IPV offenders with high levels of self-control were more specialised. There was also some modest evidence to suggest sexist attitudes were associated with IPV specialisation. The relationship between sexist attitudes and self-control was complex. An interaction effect was identified between these two key variables when predicting the frequency of IPV and, to a certain extent, IPV specialisation for male but not female perpetrators. Results are generally supportive of feminist perspectives of IPV that would predict sexist attitudes to be associated with an increase in perpetration and also associated with IPV specialisation, as this motivation for engaging with IPV (sexism) is not likely to lead to other types of offending. Additionally, Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) General Theory of Crime is supported, where low self-control was associated with an increased frequency of IPV offending and generalisation (i.e., low levels of IPV specialisation). The identified interaction between levels of sexist attitudes and self-control has implications for the integration of feminist and self-control theories. The findings help us understand that IPV perpetrators vary in the frequency and scope of their offending based on fairly stable personality traits relating to levels of sexist attitudes and self-control. The association between the frequency of IPV offending and high sexist attitudes as well as low self-control highlight the importance of the criminal justice system targeting these factors when addressing IPV perpetration. Additionally, the findings demonstrate that there are meaningful differences between specialised and versatile IPV offenders; they have different predictors and motivations for offending. When addressing the serious issue of IPV with prevention and therapeutic treatment methods these differences should be considered. For example, those with a criminal history that only (or primarily) includes IPV offences may benefit from prevention and intervention methods that involve behavioural change programs intending to address gendered power dynamics and hostile sexist attitudes, such as methods based on the Duluth model. IPV offenders with criminal histories that include a wide range of offences may benefit from intervention methods that address self-control issues such as those that incorporate anger management strategies or some form of cognitive behavioural therapy. Practical, theoretical and methodological implications are further discussed.