El sexismo del observador y el comportamiento de la mujer han demostrado su influencia sobre el modo en que las personas juzgan a esta última cuando es agredida físicamente por su pareja. Con el fin de averiguar cómo influye la interacción de ambos factores sobre la atribución de culpa a la mujer víctima de violencia de pareja, se expuso a 120 participantes a viñetas experimentales, previa medición de sus niveles de sexismo benevolente y hostil. Los resultados mostraron que los sexistas benevolentes culpaban a la víctima de violencia de pareja cuando sentían que ésta transgredía el estereotipo de género; y que, por el contrario, tendían a exonerarla cuando sentían que se comportaba de acuerdo con tal estereotipo. Esto ocurría sólo cuando el nivel de sexismo hostil del participante era bajo. Se discuten estos resultados con base en la Teoría del Sexismo Ambivalente y en las normas de género transgredidas. Palabras clave: sexismo, estereotipos de género, violencia de pareja, atribución de culpa.

Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) were developed to improve on child abuse investigative services provided by child protective service (CPS) agencies. However, until very recently, there has been little research comparing CAC-based procedures and outcomes to those in CPS investigations not based in CACs. The current study tracked 76 child abuse cases that were reported to authorities and investigated through either a private, not-for-profit CAC or typical CPS services in a mid-south rural county. Comparisons between CAC and CPS cases were made in terms of involvement of local law enforcement in the investigation, provision of medical exams, abuse substantiation rates, mental health referrals, prosecution referrals, and conviction rates. Analyses revealed higher rates of law enforcement involvement, medical examinations, and case substantiation in the CAC-based cases compared to the CPS cases. Despite limitations due to sample size and non-randomization, this study found preliminary support for the assumptions underlying the establishment of CACs.

Results have direct implications for developing appropriate training programs for bystander intervention programs on college campuses.

This study investigated perceived descriptive norms (i.e., perceived prevalence) for intimate partner violence (IPV) among college students. Male and female college students were asked to estimate the prevalence of IPV for same-sex "typical students" on their campus. Perpetrators of IPV made higher estimates than nonperpetrators. Both perpetrators and nonperpetrators overestimated the prevalence of IPV when compared to actual prevalence rates. Findings lend support for using social-norms-based prevention programs on college campuses.

The objective of this study was to determine whether female victims of physical forms of intimate partner violence (IPV) displayed deficits in risk recognition, or the ability to detect danger, in physically violent dating encounters. A total of 182 women watched a video depicting a psychologically and physically aggressive encounter between heterosexual dating partners and made repeated judgments about the interaction. Results from this study provided evidence for the validation of this methodology and found that history of physical forms of IPV was associated with risk recognition ability, such that victims of IPV were less likely to recognize the danger involved in the video vignette compared to nonvictims. Results showed important implications for IPV prevention programs.