Alcohol and Wife Abuse

Abstract

This study attempted to determine the effects of husband and wife intoxication on attributions of blame in a wife abuse incident. Participants read case history or newspaper accounts of a violent incident in which either, both, or neither spouse was intoxicated While the majority of blame was assigned to the husband, apparent drunkenness of the spouses influenced participants' attributions. When the husband was drunk, relatively more blame was assigned to situational factors and less to him. In contrast, when the wife was intoxicated, she received more blame than when she was sober.