EFFECTS OF SEX-ROLE STEREOTYPING AMONG EUROPEAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CULPABILITY ATTRIBUTIONS

Effects of European American students' sex role stereotyping and domes tic violence participants' race and relationship intimacy were examine d for culpability attributions. In addition to a man's responsibility rating and a sentencing measure, five factors were identified from the dependent measures; these were Sympathy with Man, Incident as Abusive , Generalness of Incident, Seriousness of Incident and Man as Abuser. Results indicated that sex role stereotyping was influential in culpab ility attributions, as those with traditional orientations showed a fa vorable bias toward the man, particularly a married man. Traditionalis ts provided a shorter sentence for the man and thought the incident le ss abusive when the woman was African American, in comparison to egali tarians. Both egalitarians and traditionalists expressed more sympathy toward the man when the woman was African American and married. Altho ugh we had anticipated higher culpability ratings for women involved i n interracial relationships we found that the European American man wa s thought less responsible when the woman was African American, but no differences emerged when the woman was European American. It is sugge sted future research examine the specific content of various stereotyp ic subtypes of actors involved in domestic violence and how these ster eotypic subtypes bias culpability attributions.