None of My Business? An Experiment Analyzing Willingness to Formally Report Incidents of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women

Abstract

Although data show that intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a concealed phenomenon that is severely underreported, studies examining willingness to report episodes of IPVAW are limited. To contribute to this field of research, a factorial survey experiment was implemented in which each respondent (N = 1,007) received a unique vignette describing a hypothetical case of IPVAW. Slightly over one in four respondents (28.1%) indicated that they would report the aggression. It was also found that willingness to report was influenced by both the characteristics of the vignettes and certain personal ones of the respondents. Practical implications are proposed that may contribute to preventing IPVAW.