Intimate partner violence: A comparison of the perpetrator-victim dyad

• In Event: Intimate partner violence

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a crucial issue in Society due to its individual impact on primary and secondary victims and its collective impact on the healthcare and legal systems (Barrett et al., 2021). IPV can take several forms (physical, psychological, sexual, economic, etc.). While there is a wealth of literature investigating general IPV’s prevalence and their risk factors (Boffin et al., 2008; Capaldi et al., 2012), this research is subject to limitations due to black and/or gray cases (not reported to authorities or without convictions). In addition, to the authors' knowledge, most research investigates these data on IPV’s perpetrators or victims but not on both protagonists in an integrative approach. This paper examines general data of 1395 perpetrator-victim dyads based on the analysis of domestic violence complaints from two Belgian police departments. First, we performed descriptive analyses of common data. Main results indicate the majority of offenses retained by police are assault and battery (53.30%), followed by harassment (17.30%). The most represented IPV’s forms are physical (53.70%) and psychological (43.30%), which were mainly committed between ex-partners (57.20%) whose average relationship length was 7.46 years (SD = 8.47). In 49.20% of cases, children were involved (witnesses or victims). Then, we performed matched comparisons between the perpetrators’ and victims’ profiles. They highlight victims are significantly younger than perpetrators (MeanVictims = 36.23; SDVictims = 11.14 vs. MeanPerpetrators = 37.87; SDPerpetrators = 11.18; p ≤ .001). Almost 88% of cases involve female victims with male perpetrators compared to the others (VictimsMale-PerpetratorsFemale = 10.30%; VictimsMale-PerpetratorsMale = 0.90%; VictimsFemale-PerpetratorsFemale = 1.10%; p ≤ .001). Finally, employment status seems to have an impact: unemployed victims are more likely to be abused than employed victims, regardless of the perpetrator's employment status (p ≤ .001). These results will be discussed in light of the literature.

Authors

• Audrey Vicenzutto, University of Mons

• Emilie Telle, University of Mons

• Anye Miermont, University of Mons

• Célia Lombardo, University of Mons