Development and Validation of Attitude towards Honour Killing Scale

The present study aimed to develop a scale that measures attitude towards honour killing. The scale initially contained 21 items, which were reduced to 10 scenarios after qualitative item analysis. For quantitative item analysis two phases of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were planned. The sample for exploratory factor analysis comprised of 326 individuals (men = 190 and women = 136) from general population, honour killers, and murderers in general. A factor loading of .40 was set as a selection criterion for an item to be retained in the scale. Using oblique rotation in EFA, all the items were retained proposing one factor solution. Another similar sample of 374 individuals (men = 198 and women = 176) was selected for Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) which confirmed the factor structure proposed in EFA. According to the findings, men and women in general population had a negative attitude towards honour killing; if the cause of the honour killing was adultery then general population slightly favored honour killing, whereas, honour killers followed by the ordinary murderers had a highly positive attitude towards honour killing.