Configuration, Not Content: A Network Analysis of Gendered Prototypes of Intimate Partner Violence

Research on perceptions of intimate partner violence (IPV) has predominantly focused on heterosexual relationships with male perpetrators and female victims. The scant research focusing on same-sex couples, and relationships with female abusers and male victims, has produced inconsistent findings that are hard to integrate. To bring more coherence to this literature, an improved theoretical understanding of people’s beliefs and assumptions about IPV is necessary. Thus, we set out to examine the structure of perceived IPV prototypes of various victim–perpetrator gender combinations. Using a mixed-methods approach, a U.S.- and U.K.-based sample ( N  = 161) generated open-ended descriptions of the victim, the perpetrator, their relationship and the abuse in four IPV scenarios (male-on-female, male-on-male, female-on-male, female-on-female). The responses were thematically coded and modeled as network structures, allowing us to study which features (e.g., stereotypes, assumptions) were present in each prototype and how these features were connected. The findings show surprisingly strong similarities in the overall structure of the prototypes across scenarios, yet strikingly clear differences in how specific features are linked in the different gender combinations. The results suggest that people’s gendered assumptions about IPV are reflected less in entirely different IPV ‘stories’ and rather in differences in how shared features are combined.