Intention to Act: Predicting Bystander Intervention in Violent Situations in South Korea

The purpose of this study is to explore the predictors of bystanders' intentions to intervene and types of intended intervention in domestic violence (DV) and sexual violence (SV) situations in South Korea. Using nationally representative data from the 2016 National Fact-Finding Survey on Gender Equality (N = 7,399) and logistic regression-based models, this study focused on two key predictors, bystander gender and attitudes about gender equality, while controlling for age, educational level, and employment status. Our findings indicated that males and females were equally likely to state intentions to intervene in both DV and SV situations. While both males and females were more likely to state that they would intervene indirectly rather than directly, females were even less likely to intervene directly than were males for both situations. Attitudes indicative of gender equality further increased the intention to intervene for DV and SV situations in multivariate models. Gender equality attitudes, however, decreased the intentions to intervene directly in DV but not SV situations. Limitations and implications are discussed.