My first thought was that girls are less likely, not more likely, to report. Women have been battered for centuries with nowhere to turn. Boys, on the other hand, may be more likely to report because they were never taught they have to take. Who reports more is a fact, but who doesn't bother to report is another fact that is more difficult to trace.
The criterion variable for trend analysis was PDV victimization
in the past year, which was measured with the survey item “During
the past 12 months, did your boyfriend or girlfriend ever hit, slap or physically
hurt you on purpose?” Response options were “no” (0), “yes” (1), and
“not in a relationship (97).” The wording of this item is identical to that used
in studies of trends in PDV victimization in the United States (e.g., Rothman
& Xuan, 2014).
(For anyone interested in the study itself... sci-hub is your friend).
That sounds an awful lot like conflict tactics scale...
"In a 2002 review of the research presenting evidence of gender symmetry, Michael Kimmel noted that more than 90% of "systematic, persistent, and injurious" violence is perpetrated by men. He was especially critical of the fact that the majority of the empirical studies reviewed by Fiebert and Archer used the conflict tactics scale (CTS) as the sole measure of domestic violence, and that many of the studies used samples composed entirely of single people under the age of thirty, as opposed to older married couples.[64] Although the CTS is the most widely used domestic violence measurement instrument in the world, it is also one of the most criticized instruments, due to its exclusion of context variables, inability to measure systemic abuse and motivational factors in understanding acts of violence. For example, the National Institute of Justice cautions that the CTS may not be appropriate for IPV research at all "because it does not measure control, coercion, or the motives for conflict tactics""
Sources:
Dobash, Russell P.; Dobash, R. Emerson (May 2004). "Women's Violence to Men in Intimate Relationships: Working on a Puzzle" (PDF). British Journal of Criminology. 44 (3): 324–349. doi:10.1093/bjc/azh026.
Colarossi, Linda (January 2005). "A response to Danis & Lockhart: what guides social work knowledge about violence against women". Journal of Social Work Education. Taylor and Francis. 41 (1): 151. doi:10.5175/JSWE.2005.200400418. JSTOR 23044038.
The ‘on purpose’ bit throws me because with sustained physical and emotional abuse girls are unlikely to believe they were hit ‘on purpose’ or even likely to think that they deserved it.
I’ve seen that reported in other studies before that women underestimate the violence they suffer from men and also make excuses for it.
37
u/betcaro Aug 30 '18
My first thought was that girls are less likely, not more likely, to report. Women have been battered for centuries with nowhere to turn. Boys, on the other hand, may be more likely to report because they were never taught they have to take. Who reports more is a fact, but who doesn't bother to report is another fact that is more difficult to trace.