Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the mediating effect of violence justification, including actor-effect and partner-effect, in the process where the offense motive affects dating violence. The subjects of this study were 135 unmarried male and female couples aged 19 and over who were dating for more than 3 months, and each couple was subjected to a self-report scale on motives, justification of violence, and dating violence. Based on these paraphrasing, as a result of analyzing the path model using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, Men and women’s motivations showed a direct effect on their dating violence, while women’s motivations showed a significant partner effect on men’s violence. The male’s motivation also had a significant impact on his dating violence and partner’s abuse of dating violence as a mediator for justification of his violence. On the other hand, the mediating effect of justifying violence in women was not significant. These results show that there is a gender difference between the motives for violence and the paths for justifying violence in the sex violence of men and women. Finally, the implications and limitations of this study, and suggestions for follow-up studies were discussed.