The shifting morality of intimate partner violence: Applying Situational Action Theory

• In Event: Applying moral frameworks to theory and practice

Abstract

Historically, intimate partner violence (IPV) has been omitted from general theories of crime, with some scholars rejecting the idea that IPV shares the same causes as other crime types, or questioning if male and female IPV can be explained by a singular theoretical framework. As IPV has shifted from a private to public issue and become further established as a criminological concern, explanations have focussed largely on the role of gender (typically male-female IPV) despite increasing understanding of female-male and same-gender IPV. I argue that as a type of criminal behaviour, understanding the causes of IPV through incorporating IPV into general theories of crime (which do not position gender as the causal mechanism) is a pertinent research endeavour.

This work examines IPV through Situational Action Theory (SAT), which posits personal morality as the key in its causal framework, focusing on the potentially moderating role of morality in the provocation and temptation motivation pathways for IPV perpetration. Previous work in this area by Barton-Crosby (2017) has explored the provocation pathway, and this multi-method study incorporating questionnaires and semi-structured scenario interviews aims to expand upon these findings by incorporating the temptation pathway, investigating the influence of motivation on the application of moral rules, and developing a path model of the motivation-perception process within SAT.

Author

• Sarah Carlo, University of Cambridge