How College Students Perceive Domestic Violence in The United States: An Interview Study

As domestic violence has increased in the US since the 2020 Covid Pandemic, its impact has devastated many American lives. Perception of this violence plays a key role in its continuation as society’s beliefs on this topic can greatly influence how it is addressed culturally and legally. This interview study examined how college students in the United States, one of the most vulnerable populations to intimate partner violence, perceive domestic violence. 18 college students from a large public university located in Virginia were recruited using formal and informal networks of college students through the process of snowball sampling. Semi-structured qualitative interviews that entailed open-ended and conversation-based questions were securely administered through Zoom. The questions approached topics such as base-line definitions, legality, victims, personal connections, and mental schemas. Qualitative data analysis through the means of analytical memos and closed coding were then conducted on the transcripts. Preliminary findings show that emerging themes include cycles of abuse, societal and legal shortcomings of justice, and the patterns of stereotypes. The perception of abuse being circular signified that violence can be viewed as inherently perpetual. Participants believed the justice system does not bring justice to victims and they fault the ease of believing abusers and victim blaming. However, they acknowledged the nuances of proving someone as guilty. Participants were able to identify demographics that they thought to have more abusers vs victims. This displayed clear prejudice which opened the door to question how this can affect outcomes for victims and abusers.

According to the Domestic Violence Hotline, an estimated 10 million Americans are affected by domestic violence each year; 3 in 10 women and 1 in 10 men are survivors of physical and/ or sexual violence by a partner. Domestic violence is devastating many American lives.
So now I ask why does your perception matter?
How can the perceptions of college students affect or influence domestic violence by any means?
That is what I intended to tackle in my OSCAR funded URSP project under the guidance of Dr. Cher Chen.
My name is Dina Berenshtyen and my research is How College Students Perceive Domestic Violence in The United States: An Interview Study.
First let me begin by establishing why perception, especially those of college students, is so crucial in this process of understanding and eliminating domestic violence.
The college student population is so valuable to this topic because according to Waggers and colleagues, there is an estimated 10-50% prevalence of intimate partner violence within this population. This means there is quite the likelihood that a given college student has either experienced domestic violence themselves or has heard about it secondhand through friends, peers, or classmates on campus.
Secondly, perceptions in general can shape the prevalence of domestic violence. Society’s opinions, beliefs, or thoughts on this topic can greatly influence how the issue is addressed and brought to justice both in a cultural and legal sense.
The current research is limited on understanding perceptions of domestic violence because first,
it fixates on only personal experiences in intimate partner violence which blatantly disregards violence experienced by those from family members or other non-romantic relationships. Secondly, it confines the research to personal experience which eliminates a necessary wider societal conversation with different stakeholders with different levels of personal involvement and exposure to this topic.
For my study to address this, I recruited using formal/ informal networks of college students through the process of snowball sampling and conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews on 18 college students all from various and diverse backgrounds. The interviews were made up of open-ended and conversational questions that pertained to topics such as base-line definitions, legality, victims, personal connections, and mental schemas.
Then, qualitative data analysis through the means of analytical memos and closed coding were conducted on the transcripts.
Findings show that emerging themes include cycles of abuse, societal and legal shortcomings of justice, and the patterns of stereotypes.
The perception of abuse being circular signified that violence can be viewed as inherently perpetual in nature. Think of this almost as a “hurt people hurt people” scenario. Participants typically identify the root cause of domestic violence as the perpetrator’s own unhealed psyche from trauma they endured in their past which established an intertwined and generational connotation to domestic violence.
Participants believed that the justice system does not bring justice to victims. They faulted the ease of believing abusers especially because of the notion of if I don’t see it, then it must not be happening. Many also commented on society’s tendency to victim blame which can be seen through phrases such as “they were asking for it” or “why didn’t they just leave if they were being abused?”
However, participants did acknowledge the nuances of proving someone as guilty especially because of the nature of most domestic violence cases becoming “he said she said” scenarios. There were conflicting statements from participants on whether material evidence such as photos of bruises were necessary to prove someone as guilty or if a statement from the survivor was enough to convict. Some participants brought up the issue of false accusations and once again, there was a divide of whether the small but real percentage of false accusations should deter from believing survivors.
Participants were able to identify demographics that they thought to have more abusers vs survivors. This displayed clear prejudice which opened the door to question how this can affect outcomes for victims and survivors. The most prevalent stereotypes that arose from the interviews were that domestic violence is most common in romantic heterosexual relationships where the male, typically denoted as white, is the abuser while the survivor is viewed as a female but specifically younger in age which alludes to the power imbalance of domestic violence. Although, some participants did carry an alternative stereotype that domestic violence is more likely to occur in minoritized racial backgrounds and/or in situations of lower socio-economic status.
Domestic violence in the United States is an epidemic that must be addressed. A key to this is understanding how the most vulnerable populations perceive this violence in a personal, legal, societal, and cultural sense. The more we are able to understand, the better equipped we are to fight it. This research is a part of the fight to end domestic violence. Thank you!