Effects of Recent of Marital Dissolution on the Incidence of Intimate Partner Violence

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

Although prior analyses of survey data from nationally-representative samples have shown that separated and divorced women have the highest incidence of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, the extent to which that violence is related to marital dissolution has yet to be examined. In this presentation, we use data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to consider the association between the recency of marital dissolution and the risk of IPV victimization. A proxy for recent separation/divorce – whether women who said they were separated or divorced reported being married in the previous six-month cycle of NCVS administration – is used to estimate the incidence of IPV victimization during marital dissolution relative to its incidence during a period at least six-months after separation/divorce. Based on initial analyses of data from the 1992-2012 NCVS, we estimate that women who separated or divorced during the 6-month survey cycle were at least 3 times as likely as women who had been separated or divorced for at least 6 months to have been assaulted by a spouse/ex-spouse. When the comparison is made to those who were married, recently separated/divorced women were at least 85 times as likely to have suffered IPV by their current/former spouse.

Authors

• Darryl Wood, Washington State University, Vancouver

• Walter Steven DeKeseredy, West Virginia University

• Callie Marie Rennison, University of Colorado, Denver