Attitudes towards honor killing among police officials and lawyers: role of ambivalent sexism and belief in just world

Abstract

The current research aimed to examine the attitudes towards honor killing among police officials and lawyers. The research studied the role of ambivalent sexism and belief in just world in predicting attitudes towards honor killings. For this purpose, measures utilized in the study were Attitude towards Honor Killings Scale (Huda & Kamal, 2018), Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Alla-ud-Din, 2003), and Personal Belief in Just World Scale (Fatima & Khalid, 2007). The study was conducted in two phases; Phase I was a pilot study carried out with 59 police officials and lawyers with men = 28, women = 30 to determine psychometric properties of instruments used. Given the satisfactory results of pilot study, phase II (main study) was conducted. Main study focused on testing the research hypotheses, convenience sampling technique was used to approach sample of284 police officials and lawyers with men = 194, women = 90. Age range ofthe sample was 21-67 years (M= 33.66, SD = 7.78). Item wise agreement and disagreement of participants on the basis of profession and gender showed that lawyers hold less favourable attitudes towards honor killings in comparison to police officials whereas women have more negative attitudes towards honor killings then men. Moreover, there was negative a correlation between benevolent sexism and favourable attitudes towards honor killings. Regression analysis was done while controlling for the demographic variables which showed that benevolent sexism predicts less favourable attitudes towards honor killings whereas, hostile sexism and personal belief in just world did not predict attitudes towards honor killing at all. Results of the regression analysis on sub-groups ofthe selected sample (police officials & lawyers) showed that for both of them benevolent sexism significantly predicted less favourable attitudes towards honor killings, hostile sexism predicted attihldes towards honor killings non-significantly whereas, personal belief in just world did not predicted attihldes towards honor killings. Significant differences were reported across gender where men showed more favourable attitudes towards honor killing in comparison to women. On the basis of profession, results showed that police officials reported more favourab le attitudes towards honor killing in comparison to lawyers. Whereas, participants from rural areas reported more favourable attitudes towards honor killing in comparison to participants from urban areas. Findings of the present research study signifies that despite of observable behaviour attitudes towards honor killings do exist among police officials and lawyers and that belongingness to such profession diminish the role of personal belief in just world in predicting attitudes towards honor killings. Furthennore, findings of the research can be utilized to develop special training programs to make police officials and lawyers aware of their biased attitudes toward the opposite gender. Moreover in clinical settings counselling can be provided to officials to reduce their ambivalent sexist attitudes. Limitations and suggestions have been discussed.