Abstract
This study explores both epidemiological and spatial characteristics of domestic and community interpersonal violence. We evaluated three years of violent trauma data in the medium-sized city of Campina Grande in North-Eastern Brazil. 3559 medical and police records were analysed and 2563 cases were included to identify socioeconomic and geographic patterns. The associations between sociodemographic, temporal, and incident characteristics and domestic violence were evaluated using logistic regression. Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS), we mapped victims’ household addresses to identify spatial patterns. We observed a higher incidence of domestic violence among female, divorced, or co-habitant persons when the violent event was perpetrated by males. There was only a minor chance of occurrence of domestic violence involving firearms. 8 out of 10 victims of domestic violence were women and the female/male ratio was 3.3 times greater than that of community violence (violence not occurring in the home). Unmarried couples were twice as likely to have a victim in the family unit (OR = 2.03), compared to married couples. Seven geographical hotspots were identified. The greatest density of hotspots was found in the East side of the study area and was spatially coincident with the lowest average family income. Aggressor sex, marital status, and mechanism of injury were most associated with domestic violence, and low-income neighbourhoods were coincident with both domestic and non-domestic violence hotspots. These results provide further evidence that economic poverty may play a significant role in interpersonal, and particularly domestic violence.
Highlights
Violence is estimated to have caused 475 000 deaths in 2012, with the highest rates concentrated in low- and middle-income countries of the Americas, with an average of 28.5 homicides per 100 000 population [1]
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tens of millions of people are victimized by injuries, and violence plays a significant role in this context, resulting in significant impacts on medical programmes, economic costs, mental health, and links to substance abuse [4]
The Global Status Report of the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that a quarter of adults had been victims of physical abuse as children, one-in-three women had been victimized by an intimate partner, and six per cent of elderly persons reported some abuse in the month preceding the WHO’s investigation [1]
Summary
Violence is estimated to have caused 475 000 deaths in 2012, with the highest rates concentrated in low- and middle-income countries of the Americas, with an average of 28.5 homicides per 100 000 population [1]. The Global Status Report of the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that a quarter of adults had been victims of physical abuse as children, one-in-three women had been victimized by an intimate partner, and six per cent of elderly persons reported some abuse in the month preceding the WHO’s investigation [1]. Interpersonal violence encapsulates both domestic and community violence; the former includes cases involving family members and people in romantic or otherwise intimate relationships, while the latter occurs between non-related people, who may or may not be mutually anonymous [5]. The term domestic violence refers to intimate partner violence; this study uses domestic violence to include a broader range of victim-aggressor relationships encompassing child, elder, and partner abuse, and more broadly familial incidents [6]
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