Violence Against Women

Men's lethal and nonlethal violence against an intimate female partner are compared. Various risk factors are examined to compare men's lethal and nonlethal violence against an intimate woman partner. Relative to abusers, men who kill are generally more conventional with respect to childhood backgrounds, education, employment, and criminal careers, are more likely to be possessive and jealous, and are more likely to be separated from their partner at the time of the event. Men who kill are more likely to have used violence against a previous partner, to have sexually assaulted and strangled the victim, and to have used a weapon or instrument. However, they were less likely to have been drunk at the time of the event and/or to have previously used violence against the woman they killed. Overall, the findings do not support the notion of a simple progression from nonlethal to lethal violence and raise some dilemmas for the growing area of risk assessment.

Women residing at domestic violence shelters (S group) were nearly 11 times more likely to report that their partner had hurt or killed pets than a comparison group of women who said they had not experienced intimate violence (NS group). Reports of threatened harm to pets were more than 4 times higher for the S group. Using the Conflict Tactics Scale, the authors demonstrated that severe physical violence was a significant predictor of pet abuse. The vast majority of shelter women described being emotionally close to their pets and distraught by the abuse family pets experienced. Children were often exposed to pet abuse, and most reported being distressed by these experiences. A substantial minority of S-group women reported that their concern for their pets' welfare prevented them from seeking shelter sooner. This seemed truer for women without children, who may have had stronger pet attachments. This obstacle to seeking safety should be addressed by domestic violence agencies.

It has been argued that the police do not respond to domestic calls involving same-sex couples in the same manner as they respond to calls involving heterosexual couples. A major problem facing researchers examining the police response to cases involving same-sex couples has been the lack of adequately sized samples. In this article, the authors utilize the 2000 National Incident Based Reporting System database, which contains 176,488 intimate partner assaults and intimidation incidents reported to 2,819 police departments in 19 states. The key issue examined is whether similar cases involving same-sex and heterosexual couples result in the same police response.

This article summarizes outcomes from a demonstration project on collaboration between substance abuse and domestic violence agencies. Researchers recruited women seeking services for substance abuse or intimate partner violence at 1 of 6 participating agencies. Admitted women were both victims of domestic violence and abusing alcohol or drugs. Following an initial screening, participants were interviewed at program entry (n = 255) and again 4 to 6 months later (n = 128, 50%). Key outcomes were the number of days substances were used in the past 30 days, women's perceptions of harm from battering, and domestic violence self-efficacy. Results suggest participants used substances less frequently and experienced themselves as more efficacious following services, but they were also more fearful of the consequences of domestic violence. Repeated-measures MANOVA found that substance abuse days and domestic violence self-efficacy significantly contributed to the multivariate function. Implications for services for women with co-occurring substance abuse and domestic violence victimization are discussed.

To better understand barriers service providers may face when advocating for survivors, a study using grounded theory and qualitative, semistructured interviews was conducted of rape victim advocates (N= 25) working in rape crisis centers in a large metropolitan area. Broader societal attitudes framed and were reflected in institutional responses to victims and in barriers faced by advocates working with survivors. Organizational barriers noted by advocates related to resources, environmental factors, professionalization, and racism. Staff burnout was a major barrier affecting advocates' ability to help survivors. Finally, the most salient direct service barrier was secondary victimization by criminal justice and medical or mental health systems.