Perpetrator Blame Attribution in Heterosexual Intimate Partner Violence: The Role of Gender and Perceived Injury

Partner violence resulting in physical injury is more often blamed on men than women for perpetrating the same offence, as men are often perceived to be more capable of inflicting injury. The current study used vignettes in a mixed-model design to examine the influence of perpetrator and observer gender, and weapon presence on observer blame. A split-plot analysis of variance produced a significant effect of perpetrator gender and an interaction effect of perpetrator gender and weapon presence. These findings suggest that perpetrator gender may be more important than weapon presence when examining observer perceptions.