Intimate partner violence and third-party legal mobilization: considering the role of sexuality, gender, and violence severity

This study examines how sexuality, gender, and severity affect the willingness of third parties to mobilize facets of the criminal justice system in response to witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV). An M-Turk online sample of 803 adults in the USA completed a factorial vignette survey. Participants were presented with an incident of intimate partner violence and asked to report how likely they would be to notify police and select jail as punishment for the perpetrator. Results of the study uncover no clear evidence of heteronormative bias. Rather, female victims of IPV garner the most support from third parties. Furthermore, respondents were more likely to favor a jail sentence for male perpetrators. Patterns were amplified in severe incidents. The current study suggests that gender and violence severity, rather than sexuality, are the most salient predictors of the third-party’s decision to notify the police and prefer strong criminal justice punishments.