Family violence--Cross-cultural studies

I present the development and initial validation of a new measure designed to
assess the specific content of insults used by men against their intimate partners. I used
feedback from battered women, along with a review of the relevant literature, to identify
specific insults for inclusion in the Partner-Directed Insults Scale (PDIS) (Preliminary
Study). I administered the PDIS to a sample of United States participants (Study 1) and a
sample of New Zealand participants (Study 2), allowing for a cross-national investigation
of the specific insults that men use to derogate their partners. The results demonstrate the
practical need for such a scale and provide evidence for the discriminant validity of the
PDIS by documenting that men's use of insults predicts their use of controlling behaviors
and physical violence. It is this predictive utility that makes the PDIS a valuable tool for
researchers and clinicians alike.

Men sometimes insult their intimate partners and these insults predict intimate
partner violence. No research has investigated the function of men's partner-directed
insults. I hypothesize that men's partner-directed insults are designed to retain their longterm
mate and, therefore, that men's use of partner-directed insults will covary with other
mate retention behaviors. Using the Mate Retention Inventory and the Partner-Directed
Insults Scale, I conducted two studies to test this hypothesis. Study 1 included 245 men
who reported their mate retention behaviors and partner-directed insults. Correlations and
multiple regression analyses documented the predicted relationships between men's
partner-directed insults and mate retention behaviors. Study 2 included 372 women who
reported their partner's mate retention behaviors and insults that their partner directed at
them. The results replicated the results of Study 1. Discussion highlights future directions
for investigating the relationships between men's partner-directed insults and mate
retention behaviors.

When one sex outnumbers the other in a society, what are the social consequences? Sex ratio, or the number of men per 100 women in a society, may affect many aspects of society such as crime rates. It was predicted that in countries with higher sex ratios, crime rates would be higher than in countries with lower sex ratios. It was also predicted that in countries with higher sex ratios, homicide and rape rates would be higher than in countries with lower sex ratios. Additionally, it was predicted that in countries with lower sex ratios, the incidence of female offending would be higher than in countries with higher sex ratios. Adult sex ratios and crime statistics were collected for 154 countries and for each of eight years. The prediction that crime rates would be higher in countries with higher sex ratios was partially supported by the data, as was the prediction that rape rates would be higher in countries with higher sex ratios. The prediction that homicide rates would be higher in countries with higher sex ratios was contradicted by the data, and mixed results were found for the prediction that the incidence of female offending would be higher in countries with lower sex ratios. Limitations are discussed, as are possible directions for future research.