Abstract

RIZO MARTINEZ, Lucía Ester  and  SANCHEZ SOSA, Juan José. Facilitators of Intimate Partner Violence as Perceived by Victims and Perpetrators: An Exploratory Study in the Context of Social Learning Theory. Acta de investigación psicol [online]. 2022, vol.12, n.2, pp.37-51.  Epub Apr 21, 2023. ISSN 2007-4719.  https://doi.org/10.22201/fpsi.20074719e.2022.2.442.

Few studies have documented the opinion of victims and perpetrators regarding the facilitating and instigating factors of intimate partner violence. The objective of this study was to evaluate the perception of victims and perpetrators of intimate partner violence regarding facilitating and instigating factors of violence. Participants were 27 victims of intimate partner violence aged between 18 and 71 years (mean = 34.25) and 27 legally confirmed offenders, aged between 19 and 62 years (mean = 40), who answered a questionnaire consisting of a list of facilitating factors and instigators of intimate partner violence and sociodemographic data. Both groups agreed in pointing to stress and substance use as propitiators of violence, as well as the mother of their partner as instigators. The design of interventions to treat or prevent intimate partner violence requires identifying the factors that facilitate it, including the surrounding families, since they may not only tolerate or justify the violence, but even induce it. Finally, some notorious differences between perpetrators and victims are discussed with respect to other variables that promote violence in the context of social learning theory.

Keywords : Intimate partner violence; Enablers; Victims; Perpetrators; Social learning.