Distorsiones cognitivas respecto a la violencia de género en presos

Abstract

The majority of explanatory models for Intimate Partner Violence agrees to grant great importance as a trigger factor of aggression to the attitudes and beliefs that the aggressor holds regarding the traditional sexual roles and those which excuse the violence against women. Those beliefs and attitudes have been assessed in a population sample of 159 inmates from the Penitentiary Center Alicante II, with three different criminal profiles: Gender violence, sexual assault and common delinquency (robbery with a profile of drug addiction), using a version of the IPDMV, “Distorted Thoughts about Women and Violence Inventory” (Ferrer, Bosch, Ramis, Torres, y Navarro, 2006). The results indicate the presence of cognitive distortions within the four factors measured by the questionnaire, not showing significant differences between the three sample groups with the exception of the factor “Victimization of the women” that shows an increase in the gender violence group. Those results should direct psycho-educative measures for intimate partner violence prevention in the general incarcerated population. Likewise, a meta-analysis has been conducted with three other researches that have used this Inventory, comparing prison population with non-criminal population (university students), with the result of finding a higher level of distortions in the students. This is explained by the high social desirability of the prisoners regarding psychological evaluations, and moreover due to the cultural nature of the attitudes towards sexual roles which facilitates the transmission