Understanding Violence Against Women (1996) / Chapter Skim
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2 Nature and Scope of Violence Against Women
2 Nature and Scope of Violence Against Women
Pages 23-48
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From page 23... ...
to 220 per 1,000 women Meredith et al., 19861. The most often cited figures come from the National Family Violence Surveys ~Straus and Gelles, 1990~, which found a rate of ~ ~ 6 per ~ ,000 women for a violent act by an intimate partner during the prece(ling year and 34 per 1,000 for "severe violence" by an intimate partner.
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. The FBT's Uniform Crime Reports LUCRE system collects basic information on serious crimes from participating police agencies and records supplemental information about the circumstances of homicides.
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For men, however, the rate dropped from I.5 per 100,000 in 1977 to 0.7 per 100,000 in 1992 Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1994~. It has been suggested that the availability of services for battered women, which began in the late ~ 970s, may have played a role in the decrease in males killed by intimates by offering women alternative means of escaping violent situations ~see, e.g., Browne and Williams, 1989~.
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per 100,000 for African American women; 2.S per 100,000 for white women ~Kochanek and Hudson, 19951.
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However, the source and nature of the data vary greatly from state to state. Some states collect data from health or social service sources, such as hospital emergency rooms, other health care providers, or victim service provider records, but most of the data collected come from the criminal justice system, particularly from law enforcement agencies.
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Based on comparisons with national survey data, it is estimated that only 40 to 50 percent of crimes become known to police ~Reiss and Roth, 1993~, and that -percentages may be much Tower for violent crimes against women. For example, a major survey of family violence found that only 6.7 percent of women assaulted by an intimate had reported the incident to police ~Straus and Gelles, 19901.
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Overall, there have been few survey studies on violence against women, and methodological constraints have precluded direct comparison across investigations, yet few resources in either the public or private sector are currently available for such work. Research Findings The more than 20 years of survey research on violence against women show a number of consistent patterns.
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Although the actual rates may vary, the age trench is similar for homicides Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1993~, sexual assaults iKilpatrick et al., 1992~, and intimate partner violence E.g., Straus and Gelles, 1990~. Women self-report violent actions toward their male partners at rates similar to or higher than men self-report violent actions toward their female partners E.g., Straus and Gelles, 1986~.
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In the United States, the rate of reported violent crime has increased dramatically in the past 20 years, from 46.1 per 1,000 in 1974 to 74.6 per 1,000 in 1993 a 61.8 percent increase Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1993~. In that same time span, the rate of forcible rape reported to police increased 54.9 percent Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1993)
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The recent Canadian Violence Against Women Survey found that 29 percent of ever-married women had experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner; in comparison, Straus and Gelles ~19861 estimated that violence occurred in 28 percent of marriages in the United States. The Canadian survey also found that nearly 50 percent of all Canadian women had experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual assault since the age of 16 j Statistics Canada, 1994~.
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Face-to-face interviews, the most costly data collection method, are generally preferred for the investigation of sensitive topics, such as violence in intimate relationships, because they allow for the greatest interviewer-respondent rapport. Sexual assault prevalence rates obtained in studies that gathered data through inperson interviews are generally higher than those obtained in telephone interviews; those rates, in turn, are generally higher than the rates obtained in paper-ancI-penciT surveys ~Russell, 1982; Hall and Flannery, 1984; Kilpatrick et al., 1985; Wyatt, 19921.
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, asking about sexual or intimate partner violence in the context of a survey about crime requires the respondent to define her experience as a criminal act E.g., Koss, 1992~. Research consistently shows, however, that women often do not define experiences that meet the legal definition of a rape as a rape E.g., Koss, 19881, so they may be unlikely to respond affirmatively to questions about sexual assault that are asked in the context of a survey about .
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For example, differing estimates on the prevalence of sexual assault research results that are related to methodological differences, can be used for different puposes. Research investigations that ask directly about sexual assault land which obtain relatively Tow prevalence rates)
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National survey studies suggest that African Americans are more likely than white Americans to report physical violence in an intimate relationship ~Straus and Gelles, 1986; Cazenave and Straus, ~ 990; Hampton and Gelles, ~ 994; Sorenson et al., 1996~. However, how much of the variance
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From page 41... ...
In-person interviews with representative samples of women reveal little difference in sexual assault prevalence between African American and white women George et al., 1992; Wyatt, 1992J. By contrast, unlike the findings for physical violence, studies have found Hispanic women Mostly of Mexican descent)
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in association to physical or sexual assault by intimates offered surveys in either Spanish or English and found that persons born in Mexico evidenced a much Tower risk of both physical and sexual violence in their intimate relationships than their U.S.-born Hispanic counterparts Sorenson and Telles, 199 ~ l. These differences in risk patterns were not identified in two other studies of Latinos IStraus and Smith, 1990; Sorenson et al., 1996~, in no small part because relatively recent immigrants were not likely to have been sampled since neither of these latter two studies interviewed anyone in Spanish.
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For example, immigration policies that required immigrant women to remain married to a resident spouse for 2 years before they could receive permanent residence status forced some women to remain in violent situations. Although there is anecdotal evidence that language barriers, immigrant status, geographical or social isolation, and cultural insularity can influence the experience of violence and the accessibility of interventions, these dynamics have not been systematically researched.
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Research suggests that pregnant women who are battered are more likely to delay obtaining prenatal care ~McFarIane et al., 19921 and to have low birthweight babies Bullock and McFariane, 1989~ than pregnant women who are not battered. Cigarette smoking, alcohol and other drug intake, mental health status, and other relatively sensitive topics have been investigated in numerous studies of pregnancy.
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Researchers, policy makers, and service providers from a wide spectrum of disciplines and fields including public health, criminal justice, medicine, sociology, social work, psychology, and law work on violence against women, and they need to ensure that others can understand and use their findings. The definitions need to take into account the full range of abuse experienced by women sexual, physical, and psychological and acknowledge the commonaTities among, as well as unique aspects of, those forms of violence.
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Although some national surveys have estimated the frequency of violence against women, few national lifetime prevalence ciata exist, especially for racial ancT ethnic subgroups anc! other subpopulations.
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There is little understanding of how such factors as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, culture, and sexual orientation intersect with gender to shape the particular context in which violence occurs. Because women's experiences differ on these dimensions, those differences must be understood and incorporated into the body of knowledge about violence against women in order to design intervention strategies.
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2. The National Crime Victimization Survey has been well described and its limitations examined in other work; see, for example, Reiss and Roth {1993)
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