Legislators’ Attitudes, Knowledge, and Progressive Policy Endorsement Related to Domestic and Sexual Violence: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT

Legislators (N = 76) from New Hampshire completed a survey about domestic violence (DV) and sexual violence (SV). Whereas legislators, on average, disagreed with DV and SV myths and expressed intended support for the majority of progressive DV and SV policies, the vast majority of legislators provided inaccurate local estimates of the prevalence of DV and SV. Moreover, most of the associations among myths, estimated that DV and SV prevalence, support for progressive policies, and demographic variables were not significant. Reasons for nonsupport of progressive DV and SV policies were also examined.

KEYWORDS:

• Domestic violence
• intimate partner violence
• laws
• legislation
• legislators
• policies
• sexual assault
• sexual violence