Study 1
Participants read fictitious police reports describing a domestic violence scenario. The race of the married couple depicted in the report varies: Hispanic, White, or Black. It was predicted that participants will rate an incident involving a white couple as more serious than one involving a minority group couple. This study is in pilot phase, and the trend is that people place more blame on the minority woman and sympathize with her less than they do the white woman. Also, men tend to place more blame on the wife than do women, and women are more likely to believe that the husband should be convicted of assault.
Study 2
Data collected from a tri-ethnic sample of wife batterers is being analyzed to focus on the real characteristics of Hispanic, African-American, and European-American men who have abused their wives. Are there characteristics that differ by ethnicity? When people have different perceptions of a situation based on ethnicity, are they just reflecting reality? Or are they seeing the scene differently although no difference exists?
