PSYC 353 Lecture 7: Chapter 3: Challenges of Measuring Violence and Abuse
Document Summary
Ipv measurement goals: document the frequency of various forms of violence, draw more societal attention to ipv, identify causal factors, identify risk factors, identify prevention factors, enhance treatment interventions. Our assessments are occurring after the violent act has happened. Experimental designs that lead to causal factors are not possible given the subject matter. Goal = help those reading ipv research utilize a more sophisticated filter by explaining certain false assumptions of ipv measurement. Assumption 1: most people agree on the definition of violence and abuse. Violence is used to describe physical or sexual acts while abuse is used for non-physical actions. The reality is that most people agree about severe forms of violence but less severe forms of violence can be mislabeled as abuse. The gender of the violent individual can also influence the use of the term violence vs. abuse. When measuring abuse, one must consider the following: Do the items truly tap the concept of abuse.