The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

426 Chapter 11

relationships for females. A study of lesbian

couples showed that 44% experienced either

physical or psychological IPV (Eaton et al.,

2008).

There are several explanations as to

why the data do not support people’s intu-

ition that men are more likely than women

to be perpetrators of IPV. One possibility is

that men inflict more severe violence than

women. The meta-analytic review revealed

that females sustain more injuries than males

(d 51 .15; Archer, 2000). This conclusion

was confirmed by a more recent study of

married adults (Bookwala, Sobin, & Zdaniuk,

2005) but refuted by the cross-cultural study

of college students (Straus, 2004). Males

reported higher rates of injury infliction than

females in 18 of the 31 universities. However,

a nationally representative sample of adults

showed that females are more likely to be

injured than males but males’ injuries were

more serious than those of females’ (Felson &

boyfriends/girlfriends and that violence was

typically mutual (Miller et al., 2009). One

reason forthis finding is that both girls and

boys believed that it was more acceptable for

females than males to hit their partners (Simon

et al., 2010). Over half (53%) said it was okay

for a girl to hit a boy but only 28% said it was

okay for a boy to hit a girl. Not surprisingly,

those who were more accepting of violence in

their relationships were more likely to be ei-

ther a perpetrator or a victim of violence.

Violence in gay and lesbian relation-

ships has also been studied. A nationally rep-

resentative study of adolescents in same-sex

relationships revealed an overall violence rate

of 24% using the Conflict Tactics Scale, with

slightly higher rates for female than male re-

lationships (Halpern et al., 2004). Violence

in same-sex romantic relationships was half

the rate of violence in opposite-sex romantic

relationships for males, but rates were com-

parable across same-sex and opposite-sex

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Mexico India Korea Belgium

NetherlandsHong KongNew Zealand

Brazil

Singapore

USA-Pennsylvania

Israel

Physical Assault Perpetration Rate

Male Female

FIGURE 11.11 Sample of countries in which rates of physical assault were examined among dating

couples. In most countries, the rate of female perpetration exceeded the rate of male perpetration.

Source: Adapted from Straus (2004).

M11_HELG0185_04_SE_C11.indd 426 6/21/11 12:43 PM