Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Men and women are socialized differently in the United States. Females are socialized to be submissive and docile while males are taught to be aggressive and dominant, which leads to hypermasculinity. When there is a general belief that males are dominant and women are subservient, an adversarial environment which is supportive of rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence against women is created. Although a great deal of feminist theory and literature declares a connection between negative gender attitudes and violence against women, very few studies, especially in the criminal justice literature, have addressed the relationship between gender (role) attitudes and sexual violence and/or domestic violence to confirm the association. Furthermore, there appears to be a huge gap in the literature regarding the causal connection. This paper seeks to answer the question of whether or not negative beliefs about gender roles cause increased levels of sexual assault and/or domestic violence by city and nationwide? This question will also be evaluated by gender asking whether men’s negative gender attitudes cause increased levels of sexual assault and/or domestic violence by city and nationwide? Do women's negative gender attitudes cause this as well? This study employs a time-series design using the Stowell Datasets. The number of cities included in the study will range from 45 to 83. The study's methods and results will be discussed.