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Male Peer Support and Woman Abuse in Postsecondary School Courtship: Suggestions for New Directions in Sociological Research (From Issues in Intimate Violence, P 83-96, 1998, Raquel Kennedy Bergen, ed. -- See NCJ-176608)

NCJ Number
176612
Author(s)
W S DeKeseredy; M D Schwartz
Date Published
1998
Length
14 pages
Annotation
After reviewing some earlier empirical and theoretical work on the ways male peers contribute to woman abuse in postsecondary school dating, this chapter proposes six new directions in sociological research on this problem.
Abstract
The 1992 Canadian National Survey (CNS) on Woman Abuse in university/college dating found that 28 percent of female participants reported having been sexually abused in the past year; and 11 percent of male participants reported having sexually victimized a female dating partner during the same time period. Approximately 35 percent of women reported having been physically assaulted, and 17.8 percent of men reported having been physically abusive since leaving high school. These data thus indicate that woman abuse in postsecondary school dating happens with alarming regularity. DeKeseredy and Kelly's (1993b) CNS data show that male peer support is a powerful determinant of woman abuse in postsecondary school dating; however, several improvements are necessary in subsequent research on the influence of male peer support. Topics that need to be explored are how men join or create a male undergraduate subculture of woman abuse, the contribution of a wider circle of friends; the relationship among pornography on the Internet, male peer support, and woman abuse in dating; and variations in male peer support across regions, socioeconomic groups, and racial/ethnic categories. Regarding research design, there is a need for qualitative methods and longitudinal research. 12 notes and 70 references