Repetitive Intimate Partner Victimization: An Exploratory Application of Social Learning Theory
- 9 September 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Deviant Behavior
- Vol. 32 (9), 790-817
- https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2010.538342
Abstract
The research literature on intimate partner violence (IPV) has documented a number of poignant facts that serve as the foundation for this study. First, IPV is prevalent, frequent, and often repetitive. Moreover, repetitive violence within an intimate relationship tends to escalate over time, both in its frequency of occurrence and in its severity. We also know that decisions to leave the relationship do not guarantee that the violence will end. In addition, the phenomenon of “mutual combatancy,” prevalent in many intimate partner relationships, suggests that both parties in this dyadic process co-share the roles of offender and victim. Finally, we know that targets of IPV, like their abusers, tend to disproportionately come from families-of-origin in which violence and aggression were directly and/or vicariously experienced. These facts suggest that one possible starting point for the exploration of repetitive intimate partner victimization (R-IPV) may derive from an inter-generational transmission, or cycle of violence theory, suggested more formally in social learning approaches to criminal and deviant behaviors. The present study examines the extent to which measures of Akers' social learning constructs are able to predict repetitive intimate partner victimization. Self-report data on intimate partner violence among a sample of college students reveal the social learning theory variables, differential association and differential reinforcement in particular, are able to predict both the prevalence and frequency of predict repetitive intimate partner victimization.Keywords
This publication has 44 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Empirical Status of Social Learning Theory: A Meta‐AnalysisJustice Quarterly, 2009
- What Distinguishes Single from Recurrent Sexual Victims? The Role of Lifestyle‐Routine Activities and First‐Incident CharacteristicsJustice Quarterly, 2009
- THE DIFFERENTIAL RISK OF RETALIATION BY RELATIONAL DISTANCE: A MORE GENERAL MODEL OF VIOLENT VICTIMIZATION*Criminology, 2005
- The impact of current and past interpersonal violence on women's mental healthSocial Science & Medicine, 2004
- Definitional and Methodological Issues Related to Transnational Research on Intimate Partner ViolenceViolence Against Women, 2004
- Women's Violence to Men in Intimate Relationships: Working on a PuzzleThe British Journal of Criminology, 2004
- “Gender Symmetry” in Domestic ViolenceViolence Against Women, 2002
- Harsh Physical Discipline in Childhood and Violence in Later Romantic Involvements: The Mediating Role of Problem BehaviorsJournal of Marriage and Family, 2000
- Prevalence and Consequences of Male-to-female and Female-to-male Intimate Partner Violence as Measured by the National Violence Against Women SurveyViolence Against Women, 2000
- Social Contexts and Social Learning in Sexual Coercion and Aggression: Assessing the Contribution of Fraternity MembershipFamily Relations, 1991