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Degree

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, Guidance & Counseling, 2005.

Abstract

The accuracy of men’s, and women’s report of their own use of physical assault tactics is a topic that needs further exploration. The purpose of this study was to extend the current research on domestic violence offenders by including women in the offender sample. The problem was to determine if gender differences existed in reporting physical assault when both men and women were reporting from a perpetrator perspective. Responses on a self-report measure were compared to police reports in order to determine the accuracy of the self-report. Age, gender, cohabitation status, and time between arrest and assessment were evaluated to explain the variance in the tendency to accurately disclose the use of physical assault, and to determine how the variables mentioned above account for the variance in the occurrence of injury. The hypotheses were tested using multiple linear regression. This study utilized archival data that was collected as part of the intake procedures for a family violence court program. Clients entering the family violence court program completed the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2; Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy, and Sugarman, 1996). Police reports were also available for this sample. Using the CTS2 as a guideline, police reports were coded by independent raters determining the occurrence and level of severity of the physical assault. The sample consisted of 204 participants. All participants were at least 18 years of age with an age range of 18 – 62 years of age. All participants had entered a guilty plea to a domestic violence charge against a partner in exchange for entering the program. The findings for this study indicated that for overall physical assault and minor physical assault, gender, age, and marital status did not account for a significant amount of variance in accuracy scores. For severe physical assault scores men were less accurate than women when reporting severe physical assault. These findings have meaningful implications for the assessment of physical assault for offender populations. The results suggest that men are less accurate than women at reporting severe physical assault, and suggest that individuals report physical assault differently depending on the severity of the assault.

Subject Headings

Education, Guidance and Counseling

Keywords

Domestic Violence; Accuracy of Self-Report; Gender Differences; Injury

Committee / Advisors

Isadore Newman
John Zarski

Pages

139p.

Document number: akron1114961814
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1114961814

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