Violence against Women, Culture of Honor and Control; a Dangerous Interaction?

Violence against women is a manifestation of gender inequality. Numerous studies showed that numerous variables interact on it. Among them, the influence of culture of honor has been verified. Honor refers to a complex system, based on the protection of the social image. Also, the use of control by aggressors has been widely documented. We will review the available evidence of their importance in the prediction of aggression, and their possible relationship. A review of the literature about these variables was examined. Regarding control, 161 studies were reviewed; and 107 from culture of honor, both between 2006 and 2016. Following the exclusion criteria 9 studies of control and 7 of culture of honor were selected. Next, a fixed-effect model was used to estimate the mean effect of control on the aggression. Regarding the culture variable of honor this was not possible, since no study analyzes this relationship. Based on the fixed effects, the results showed a moderate effect size in the relationship between control (Fiser`s Z = .48) and violence. Regarding culture of honor, one of the studies demonstrated that, the subjects who showed more adherence to it approved more the use of violence (M = 2.05, SD = 1.27) than subjects with less adherence (M = 1.41, SD = 0.97). The rest of the studies examined its relation with: gender identity, emotional intelligence, distorted thoughts and demographic factors. We have verified how control has a moderate effect on the prediction of aggression. However, we have not been able to find any study that analyzes the relationship between culture of honor and violence.