Assessment of beliefs about wife beating among Iranian and Indian victims

The present study reports the assessment of beliefs about wife beating among Iranian and Indian violence victims. A total of 400 Iranian (200) and Indian women (200) were randomly selected from Esfahan city from Iran and Mysore city from India. They were administered Inventory of Beliefs about Wife Beating (Saunders, Lynch, Grayson, & Linz, 1987). The inventory measures beliefs in 4 components-wife beating is justified; wives gain from beatings; help should be given; offender should be punished and offender is responsible The data was collected in one session by contacting individually each respondent in Esfahan and Mysore cities. The data were subjected to Multi-variate Analysis of variance and following results were observed. Iranian sample had high scores on justification of beating wife, gain for wives and responsibility and punishment for husband. Indian sample had high scores on rendering help for the victims of domestic violence. Unemployed victims had high scores on gain and rendering help. Also, suggestions to eradicate domestic violence with special reference to wife beating have been delineated.