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Abstract

This study examines honor killing attitudes amongst a sample of sixty graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Justice Studies at San Jose State University and offers a systematic review of published academic literature on honor killings. It hypothesizes that students who strongly adhere to patriarchal traditionalism are more likely to endorse legitimacy of honor killings, controlling for gender, education, family size, religion, religiosity/religious conviction, and female chastity expectations. Descriptive findings suggest that the majority of respondents disagree that honor murders are justified, regardless of circumstances, dependent variable honor killing attitudes. Respondents also report negative attitudes toward authority and obedience, resistance to change, and patriarchal entitlements, independent variable patriarchal traditionalism. Female respondents report stronger opposition to honor killings and patriarchal traditionalism than males, which is in agreement with results of existing research; respondents’ gender explains some of the variance in attitudes toward honor killings. The study’s limited sampling parameters do not allow for generalization of calculated statistical data and results. Implications and further research suggestions are discussed.

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