Living in a Web of Trauma

Abstract

According to the 2010 US Census Bureau, 42 million people, self‐identify as Black or African American, either alone or in combination with one or more races1 (DeNavas‐ Walt & Proctor, 2014). This richly diverse, resilient population is overrepresented among victims and perpetrators of nonfatal and fatal community, family, and intimate partner violence. For example, in the National Crime Victimization Survey, the rate of violent victimization for Blacks was 25.1 per 1000 in 2013. Rape, robbery, and physical assaults were perpetrated by intimate partners, family members, and strangers (Truman & Langton, 2014). Moreover, African Americans, whether as individuals or couples, consistently reported higher rates of overall, severe, mutual, and recurrent past year and lifetime intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and perpetration than their White and Hispanic counterparts in general population, community, and university samples2 (West, 2012). Although they were 13.6% of the population, African Americans accounted for one‐half of the nation’s homicide victims in 2005 (Harrell, 2007). However, Black Americans are not inherently more violent than other ethnic groups. In fact, many of the racial differences disappear, or become less significant, when researchers control for socioeconomic status (West, 2012). The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature to explore reasons why African Americans are overrepresented among victims and perpetrators of interpersonal violence. In the first section, I will define historical trauma and discuss gender differences in prevalence rates of fatal and nonfatal violent criminal victimization and prevalence rates of physical, sexual, and psychological intimate partner violence. In the next section, I will describe the ecological model and discuss risk factors for interpersonal violence at the individual, relationship, community, and societal levels. To conclude, Living in a Web of Trauma An Ecological Examination of Violence among African Americans Carolyn M. West