Attitudes Towards Professional Interventions of Social Workers, Police Officers and Judges in Different Patterns of Husband-to-Wife Violence in Palestinian Society

Research conducted over the last four decades has revealed that violence against women in intimate relationships is a multidimensional and multi-faceted problem. Although theoretical and empirical interest in the sociocultural... [ view full abstract ]

Research conducted over the last four decades has revealed that violence against women in intimate relationships is a multidimensional and multi-faceted problem. Although theoretical and empirical interest in the sociocultural and political contexts of the problem has been increasing in recent years, very few studies have been conducted on the relevance of these contexts to violence against women in intimate relationships in Arab societies. The present study was conducted among a random sample of 624 Palestinian women and men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and examined the participants' attitudes toward professional interventions by social workers, police officers, and judges in different patterns of husband-to-wife violence (HWV). The results of the study reveal that although the participants' attitudes differed by the severity and frequency of HWV, the vast majority of them still tended to endorse interventions with the couple that aim to solve the HWV problem in the family as opposed to interventions that may cause the wife to leave the family, court interventions that may order the husband to leave the home, or interventions that may lead to separation or divorce. The study was based on an integrative conceptual framework, in which several variables such as sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., age and gender), selected attitudes toward HWV (e.g., justifying wife beating, perceptions of harm caused to battered women), personal exposure to violence, and marital role expectations were examined as the main predictors of participants' attitudes toward professional interventions in cases of HWV. The implications of the findings for future research, theory development, and development of interventions with battered women in collectivist societies will be discussed.