An exploration of revenge within romantic relationships

Background: Following interpersonal transgressions, some individuals have difficulty letting go of hostile feelings towards their transgressor, foregoing forgiveness and enacting revenge. Romantic revenge research has received less attention than other interpersonal relationship contexts (e.g. the workplace). Aims and objective: This thesis explores romantic revenge, seeking to highlight current knowledge of this topic and determine areas requiring further exploration. It comprises a systematic review (consolidating our current understanding of romantic revenge), a psychometric critique (examining a measure – the Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations inventory - used to explore unforgiving motivations, including revenge) and two empirical research studies (examining extra-legal factors that could influence public perceptions of a vengeful behaviour committed within romantic relationships - Revenge Pornography). Overall findings: The systematic review identified variables (e.g. personality) that appear to influence perceptions of, motivations for, or likelihood of engaging in romantic revenge; a preliminary framework was developed to highlight the complex processes involved. The critique highlighted a need for the measure to be validated with offender samples (specifically, those who commit vengeful offences against romantic partners). The empirical research revealed there are extra-legal factors (e.g. victim-perpetrator gender) that appear to influence perceptions of revenge pornography in relation to victim blame and perceptions of harm; these were subsequently included in the preliminary framework developed within the systematic review. Implications and limitations are discussed