Battered Immigrant Women and the Police: A Canadian Perspective.

Statement of purposeIn the context of intimate partner violence (IPV), perpetrators may use guns to injure, scare, and/or manipulate their partner. Gun threats are associated with increased PTSD symptom severity,...

This study examines a hypothesis that has not received adequate scrutiny: that an important proportion of intimate partner violence (IPV) incidents, particularly those that are more serious, involve generalist offenders known to the police. Many criminological theories and empirical studies suggest that offenders are often generalists, yet few IPV studies consider this hypothesis. Based on a sample of 52,149 IPV incidents recorded by police, we found that 31% of IPV incidents involved suspects only with criminal records for non-IPV criminality, 9% involved victims only with criminal records for non-IPV criminality, and 14% involved both suspects and victims with criminal records for non-IPV criminality. Thus, 45% of IPV offenders and 23% of IPV victims had criminal records for non-IPV criminality. Multilevel regression analyses reveal that controlling for prior IPV incidents, community context, and other individual and couple variables, IPV offenders with criminal records are 16% more likely to be involved in more serious incidents, and victims of IPV with criminal records are 17% more likely to be involved in more serious incidents. In addition, IPV incidents for which both suspects and victims had criminal records were 46% more likely to be more serious incidents. These results suggest that generalist criminals known by police have an important impact on the proportion of IPV incidents, particularly the more serious ones.

There are few longitudinal estimates of intimate partner violence (IPV) incidence and continuation. This report provides estimates of IPV incidence and continuation in women receiving health care in clinics participating in an IPV assessment and services intervention study. The Women's Experience with Battering Scale was used in combination with questions addressing physical and sexual assault to annually screen women for IPV. Between April 2002 and August 2005, 657 women in rural South Carolina consented and were screened at least twice. Among those with a current partner (n = 530), the majority (86.2%) had never experienced IPV. Among prevalent victims, IPV continued over time for 37%. IPV continuation rates were higher among older women and those who considered abuse as a problem in their relationship. Of those women who were IPV negative at time 1, IPV incidence at time 2 was 4.2%. A higher score on the Women's Experience with Battering Scale at time 1, a marker of psychological abuse, was a strong predictor of physical IPV incidence (p(trend) = 0.0001). These data suggest that the incidence of IPV over a short follow-up period is relatively low and that the majority of IPV desists over this short follow-up period.

Intimate partner violence (IPV), defined as physical violence, psychological aggression, sexual abuse, and stalking in current or former intimate relationships, is a public health problem that impacts children and adolescents both directly and/or as collateral victims.1–4 Over 15-million children in the United States are exposed to IPV annually,5 and 6% to 10% of violent pediatric deaths are IPV related incidents.2,3 Firearm presence during IPV encounters increases risk for fatal outcomes fivefold,6 and firearms are the most common mechanism of death during childhood IPV incidents.2–4 Previous work on childhood IPV deaths used the US National Violent Death Reporting System but has not examined incident details that may differ between firearm and nonfirearm childhood IPV deaths.2–4 This work describes characteristics of childhood firearm IPV incident deaths and differences between firearm and nonfirearm childhood IPV deaths with data from an alternative reporting system, the National Fatality Review-Case Reporting System (NFR-CRS), used by child death review teams.Data are from the NFR-CRS for children ages 0 to 18 years-old who died between 2004 and 2020 as reported from 37 states. NFR-CRS development details, variables, and limitations are described elsewhere.7 Childhood IPV incident deaths were included in this sample if the mechanism of death was identified as bodily force or weapon (eg, firearm) and the mechanism intention included IPV. We report descriptive analyses for the child’s demographics, mechanism of death, incident details, and firearm characteristics, as well as unadjusted logistic regressions for bivariate comparisons (ie, odds ratios) of firearm versus nonfirearm childhood IPV deaths. Recognizing race and ethnicity as social constructs and as reported on death certificates, categories were collapsed into white and non-Hispanic versus other, given low counts within other categories. Child maltreatment history, IPV victimization history, open child protective service (CPS) cases, and number of deaths during the incident were not included in bivariate analyses because of substantial missing data (>10%) but are described below. Variables with missing data are noted when applicable and reported percentages or unadjusted logistic regressions exclude missing data. This study was exempt per University of Michigan’s Institutional Review Board.Four-hundred-and-sixty-four childhood deaths from bodily force or weapon were classified as an IPV incident in the NFR-CRS between 2004 and 2020 (Table 1). Within the sample, 43.6% (n = 337-of-464) and 37.1% (n = 170-of-464) of decedents had prior maltreatment or IPV victimization reports, respectively, and 8.0% had open CPS cases at time of death (n = 387-of-464). Firearms were the most common mechanism of death (64.7%). Other mechanisms of death included: bodily force (19.0%), knife or sharp object (17.2%), another weapon (7.1%) (eg, rope), and unknown (1.7%). For childhood firearm IPV incident deaths, handguns were used most often (72.3%), with the primary caregiver (58.3%) often cited as the firearm owner. There were higher overall number of deaths during an incident (n = 361-of-464) when a firearm was used (mean = 3.1) compared with all other mechanisms (mean = 1.8). In bivariate comparisons, children who died in an IPV incident with a firearm compared with another mechanism were more likely to be older, and the person responsible was more likely to be the parent (Table 1).NFR-CRS data demonstrate that firearms are used in most childhood deaths related to IPV incidents. Further, when IPV incidents involve a firearm, more individuals are harmed and parents are often involved relative to incidents involving a different mechanism. Although these findings are supported by previous work,2–4 they highlight that in addition to IPV interventions providing education on safe and healthy relationships, creating safe environments, and providing strategies to leave abusive relationships when safely feasible,8 that these interventions should include components of safe firearm storage counseling and/or discussions about how to limit firearm access (eg, Domestic Violence Restraining Orders). Further, with 8% of decedents in this sample known to have an open CPS case at the time of death and approximately 40% having reports of previous maltreatment and/or IPV victimization, suggests a potential for service agencies to intervene to prevent lethal escalation of family-based violence. Similar to other national reporting systems, limitations to this work largely stem from limitations inherent to the NFR-CRS, including variability in case review by examiners and data accuracy and completeness. To address these limitations, more standardized data collection practices should be implemented. Additionally, future analyses should examine case narratives to provide more context for factors contributing to childhood IPV incident deaths.The authors gratefully acknowledge the states that participate in the NFR-CRS.

Objectives: To examine police charging practices in case of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Canada. Methods: In this national level study, we explore police charging in cases of IPV using data from the 2008 Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) survey. Using logistic regression, we examine the impact of several key legal and extralegal factors on the police charging decisions. Results: Analysis shows that, while the majority of cases were cleared by charge, the proportion of cases in which police recommended a charge varied across the country. Further, the majority of legal and extralegal variables examined were significantly associated with the police decision to lay a charge across the jurisdictions examined, including the presence of victim injury, multiple victims, offence type as well as gender of the victim and the victim–accused relationship. Conclusion: Study findings indicate that future research on police charging in cases of IPV require more precise examinations of the role played by gender and the type of relationship as well as an investigation of the community context in which police decisions are made.

PurposeThe current study examined police response, specifically identification and arrest decisions, to nonfatal strangulation occurring within the context of intimate partner violence.Design/methodology/approachData for the present study were derived from a sample of 117 possible nonfatal strangulation case reported to a police agency located in one of the fifth largest and most diverse US cities. A series of logistic regression models were employed to examine the role of victim, suspect and case characteristics on officer formal identification of strangulation and officer arrest decisions.FindingsResults revealed that 14% of all intimate partner violence (IPV) cases reported to the police agency involved possible nonfatal strangulation and less than half of all possible nonfatal strangulation cases were formally identified as such by officers. The odds of formal identification of strangulation by police increased when strangulation was manual and when victims reported difficulty breathing. Injury and formal identification increased the odds of arrest.Originality/valueThis study is the first to examine predictors of police formal identification and arrest decisions in nonfatal strangulation occurring within intimate partner violence incidents.

Authors examine prevalence of sexual violence and stalking victimization by the same perpetrator, reporting perpetrator types, intimate partner context and impacts for this combination of victimization. Data are from the 2010–2012 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, a nationally representative adult telephone survey. Analyses examined the characteristics of the victimization, presence of other intimate partner violence by the same perpetrator, and victim impacts (e.g., injury). An estimated 8.1% (9.8 million) of women and 1.6% (1.9 million) of men in the United States were stalked and sexually victimized by the same perpetrator, most often an intimate partner. Over 90% of female and male victims experienced sexual violence, stalking, psychological aggression, and physical violence by the same intimate partner perpetrator. Impacts of both intimate partner and non-intimate partner perpetrated victimization were most commonly fearfulness, concern for safety, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Sexual violence combined with stalking is common in the context of intimate partner violence. Early prevention efforts (i.e., in youth) addressing the context of intimate partner violence may be helpful in reducing these forms of violence and their impacts.

Objectives. To investigate the prevalence, pattern, and socioeconomic risk factors of intimate partner violence (IPV) before and 6 months after the pandemic onset among a cohort of Iranian women. Methods. We conducted a population-based IPV survey among 2502 partnered Iranian women aged 18 to 60 years before (n = 2502) and 6 months after (n=2116) the pandemic's onset. We estimated prevalence and incidence of psychological, physical, and sexual IPV, and the odds of different forms of IPV associated with main exposure variables, adjusted for participant relationship factors. Results. Pandemic prevalence of IPV (65.4%; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 63.4%, 67.4%) was higher than prepandemic prevalence (54.2%; 95% CI = 52.2%, 56.3%). At follow-up, the incidence of IPV was 25.5% (95% CI = 22.9%, 28.4%). The highest incidence was in cases of physical and sexual IPV. Women whose partners lost their employment were at significant risk of new exposure to IPV. Highest socioeconomic status (SES) was associated with less physical IPV (odds ratio = 0.03; 95% CI = 0.01, 0.14). Conclusions. IPV prevalence has risen since the COVID-19 epidemic began with many women who had never experienced IPV now facing it. Unemployment of women or their partners and prepandemic lower socioeconomic status are risk factors of IPV. Monitoring programs should target these populations. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(2):228-237. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306839).

This paper describes a qualitative study with 89 participants that details how abusers in intimate partner violence (IPV) contexts exploit technologies to intimidate, threaten, monitor, impersonate, harass, or otherwise harm their victims. We show that, at their core, many of the attacks in IPV contexts are technologically unsophisticated from the perspective of a security practitioner or researcher. For example, they are often carried out by a UI-bound adversary - an adversarial but authenticated user that interacts with a victim»s device or account via standard user interfaces - or by downloading and installing a ready-made application that enables spying on a victim. Nevertheless, we show how the sociotechnical and relational factors that characterize IPV make such attacks both extremely damaging to victims and challenging to counteract, in part because they undermine the predominant threat models under which systems have been designed. We discuss the nature of these new IPV threat models and outline opportunities for HCI research and design to mitigate these attacks.

Sexual violence and intimate partner violence are exacerbated by armed conflict and other humanitarian crises. This narrative systematic review of evidence for interventions to reduce risk and incidence of sexual and intimate partner violence in conflict, post-conflict and other humanitarian crises, updates and expands our review published in 2013. A search of ten bibliographic databases for publications from January 2011 to May 2020 used database specific key words for sexual/intimate partner violence and conflict/humanitarian crisis. The 18 papers, describing 16 studies were undertaken in conflict/post-conflict settings in 12 countries. Six intervention types were reported: i) personnel; ii) community mobilisation; iii) social norms; iv) economic empowerment; v) empowerment; and vi) survivor responses, with the most common being economic empowerment (n = 7) and gendered social norms interventions (n = 6). Combined interventions were reported in nine papers. Four studies identified non-significant reductions in incidence of sexual/ intimate partner violence, showing an evident positive trend; all four evaluated gendered social norms or economic empowerment singly or in combination. Evidence for improved mental health outcomes was found for some economic empowerment, social norms and survivor interventions. Some evidence of reduced risk of sexual violence and intimate partner violence was identified for all intervention types. Qualitative studies suggest that experiences of social connection are important for women who participate in programming to address sexual and intimate partner violence. Interventions with multiple strategies appear to hold merit. Achieving and demonstrating reduced sexual and intimate partner violence remains challenging in this context. Future research should continue to explore how social norms interventions can be most effectively delivered, including the impact of including mixed and same sex groups. Work is needed with local partners to ensure programs are contextually adapted.

Many studies have been conducted on gender differences in intimate partner violence (IPV), producing inconsistent results. Some studies report that men were victimized by IPV as much as women were, whereas others find that IPV was predominantly perpetrated by men against women. The nature and context of IPV may be crucial to understanding gender differences in IPV, but national data collections do not regularly report on this information. This study expects to fill this gap by using nationally representative data to examine differences in the nature and context of IPV between male and female perpetrators. This study uses the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES). Descriptive statistics for each gender are first obtained (n = 2,190). A discriminant analysis is used with gender as a grouping variable, including only perpetrators of IPV (n = 236). The independent variables are age, race, education, employment, financial security, frequency and severity of IPV, controlling behaviors, and the initiator of physical arguments. The study findings suggest that women and men do not vary much in the prevalence, frequency, and severity of IPV, controlling behaviors, or the initiation of physical arguments. They also suggest that those variables are rather weak in differentiating IPV against men from IPV against women. Since the study revealed some gender differences in IPV and, at the same time, encountered methodological difficulties in convincingly showing them as real gender differences, more research is clearly needed.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) stands as a global social and public health crisis deeply rooted in extensive social and cultural contexts. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected social interactions. This scoping review aims to synthesize evidence on the social contexts of IPV and system responses to COVID-19 in Africa. Adhering to the Arksey and O’Malley (2005) approach, refined by the Joanna Briggs Institute (2020), this review encompassed relevant literature from bibliographic databases, institutional websites, and electronic libraries from January 2020 to December 2021. The search was executed in three phases across databases, including Social Science Database and Sociological Abstract (through EBSCO), Africa Journal Archive, ProQuest (Coronavirus Research Library; Middle East and Africa Collection; Psychology, Sociology, and Social Science Database), and Google Scholar, also extended to the World Bank e-Library, the BBC portal, and pertinent websites. Briggs’s (2020) recommendations guided the screening, focusing exclusively on English language articles. Convergent synthesis of extracted information utilized thematic analysis and, when applicable, descriptive statistics. Of the 14 articles meeting inclusion criteria, results revealed varied incidences of IPV during the COVID-19 pandemic, encompassing emotional, economic, and violence among minors. Women’s experiences of daily IPV realities during the outbreak and lockdown hinged on contextual factors and relationship dynamics. Emotional and economic violence was predominant, with limited IPV cases among minors. State and non-state responses were inadequate, reactionary, and insufficiently transformative for the complex emergency posed by COVID-19 on livelihoods and intimate relationships. Pre-existing IPV instances lacked sensitivity in the preparedness and measures for gender inequalities within intimate relationships. While IPV was reported, both state and non-state actors exhibited notably deficient responsiveness.

Identify the incidence and prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in women over 55 years of age in primary care offices. Telephone survey conducted between March and June 2003 by trained female interviewers who gathered self-report information about health and abuse. A total of 3,636 women over 55 years of age had at least 1 visit in the past 12 months to primary care offices affiliated with an academic center in Southwestern Ohio were contacted by phone; 995 were deemed competent and completed the interview. INTERVENTION/INSTRUMENT: Thirty-eight page instrument that explored health, history of psychological (controlling behavior and threat of physical harm), physical, and sexual abuse since age 55 years. Interviews lasted 20 to 45 min. The mean age was 69 years (SD 8.35). Physical abuse in intimate relationships was reported by 1.52% since age 55 years (prevalence) and 0.41% in the past year (incidence). Prevalence and incidence rates for sexual abuse were 2.14% and 1.12%, threat of physical harm 2.63% and 1.62%, respectively. Less than half of the victims told someone else about the abuse. The mean number of health conditions was 3.84 for victims and 3.21 for nonvictims (P<.055) with significantly larger percentages of IPV victims reporting problems with chronic pain and depression. Physical and sexual abuse by an intimate partner does occur in women over 55 years, but rates are lower than those of younger women. Health care providers are reminded to think about IPV in older women and to ask about abuse as disclosure is rare.

Exposure to parental violence can have devastating consequences for children, including significant personal, social, and academic problems. The present study determined the situational factors that are associated with children's exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) incidents. To examine whether these factors were unique to child witnesses' presence at IPV incidents, we also determined the factors that are associated with children's exposure to family violence (FV) and other family member witnesses' exposure to IPV incidents. Participants responded to an online panel survey investigating the role of alcohol and other drugs in family and domestic violence incidents in Australia. Nine hundred fifty-two respondents reported an IPV incident and 299 reported an FV incident; they provided details about their most recent incident. Results showed that child witnesses were more likely to be present during IPV incidents if the incident took place at home (odds ratio [OR] = 3.10), if a similar incident had occurred previously (OR = 1.66), if drugs were involved (OR = 1.60), and if a police report was made (OR = 2.61). There was some overlap with the other witness and violence combinations: The presence of a police report also predicted child witnesses' presence at FV incidents, and a home location also predicted other family member witnesses' presence at IPV incidents. These results enhance our understanding of the situations in which children might witness IPV incidents; future research is needed to determine whether these situational factors can be used to judge risk.

Lifetime and annual incidence of intimate partner violence and resulting injuries—Georgia, 1995