ABSTRACT

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a widespread phenomenon. Despite the prevalence of IPV in Western societies, most cases remain unnoticed or at least unreported to authorities. Social psychologists have been investigating bystanders’ reactions to IPV, to understand which factors may influence the willingness to intervene in support of a female victim of violence. We review a research programme that directly investigated personal and situational factors that make potential bystanders believe a woman victim of IPV deserves and needs (their) help and support, and what, on the contrary, makes them deny any such willingness to help. We present evidence about the situational antecedents of bystander’s reaction, the underlying mechanisms of this intervention, and an extension of such evidence to non-prototypical cases, i.e., to an IPV episode occurring within a same-sex couple. We conclude by discussing future directions, and by highlighting the theoretical and practical contributions of this programme of research to the understanding of IPV for both researchers and practitioners.

摘要

亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）是一种普遍现象。尽管IPV在西方社会盛行，但大多数情况仍未引起注意，或至少未向当局报告。社会心理学家一直在调查旁观者对IPV的反应，以了解哪些因素可能影响干预以支持女性暴力受害者的意愿。我们审查了一项研究计划，该计划直接调查了个人和情况因素，这些因素使潜在的旁观者相信IPV的女性受害者应得到并需要（他们的）帮助和支持，相反，这使他们否认有任何这样的帮助意愿。我们提供有关旁观者反应的情景前因，潜在机制的证据这种干预的证据，并将此类证据扩展到非典型病例，即在同性伴侣中发生的IPV发作。最后，我们讨论了未来的方向，并着重指出了该研究计划对研究人员和从业人员对IPV理解的理论和实践贡献。