Economic Stress and Domestic Violence

Abstract

The empirical research on the relationship between mortgage foreclosures and crime continues to evolve, and, with few exceptions, the results generally show that there is a relationship between community measures of mortgage foreclosure and crime levels. Lacking in this literature are studies that considered how foreclosures may impact domestic violence. For many families, home mortgages have significant meaning as an indicator of financial stability and represent a long-term commitment to a community through home ownership and the accompanying social and financial investments. Families who are threatened with the loss of their home to foreclosure experience a decrease in their financial status, and the stress triggered by the crisis may place them at greater risk for family violence. In this study, we examine the relationship between mortgage foreclosures and family violence. Using longitudinal panel data for Massachusetts cities and towns, our study focuses specifically on the years 2005–2009, the period that includes the Great Recession. We find that after controlling for other community indicators of economic health, higher levels of monthly mortgage foreclosures lead to higher levels of domestic violence.

The Relationship Between Foreclosures and Intimate Partner Violence During the U.S. Housing Crisis

“…We are aware of only one research study that examines the relationship between foreclosures and IPV during the recent housing crisis, finding that foreclosures are positively associated with IPV (Pattavina et al, 2015). This study is an important first step in understanding the relationship between foreclosures and IPV.…”

“…Foreclosures were more concentrated in low-income and minority communities (Bocian et al, 2011), places that disproportionately experienced disadvantage and environmental stress. Furthermore, Pattavina et al (2015) draw upon data for a limited number of years of the housing crisis, a time when foreclosures were relatively stable, but IPV was increasing, which makes it difficult to test whether the relationship between foreclosures and IPV is nonspurious. We attempt to fill these gaps and build empirical evidence on the link between neighborhood foreclosures and IPV in this research by examining trends (a) at the neighborhood level and (b) over a longer time span of the housing crisis.…”

“…Each time period is a dummy variable, with the reference category being the precrisis period. This allows us to test whether the relationship between foreclosure and IPV changed over the housing crisis, which is an improvement upon prior studies (Pattavina et al, 2015). Table 1 includes all the summary statistics for the dependent and independent variables.…”

“…A number of neighborhood structural characteristics, such as disadvantage Benson, Wooldredge, Thistlewaite, & Fox, 2004;DeMaris, Benson, Fox, Hill, & Van Wyk, 2003;, resource deprivation (Miles-Doan, 1998), and immigrant concentration (Pearlman, Zierler, Gjelsvik, & Verhoek-Oftedahl, 2003;Wright & Benson, 2010) are associated with a higher risk of experiencing IPV. Yet, relatively little is known about how neighborhood housing distress affects IPV (Burke, O'Campo, & Peak, 2006;Cannuscio et al, 2012;Daoud et al, 2016;Pattavina, Socia, & Zuber, 2015;Pavao, Alvarez, Baumrind, Induni, & Kimerling, 2007;Rollins et al, 2012;Yonas et al, 2011).…”

“…Whether IPV is an aftershock of neighborhood housing distress and related socioeconomic changes is unknown. The years of the housing crisis, particularly the early stage from 2007 to 2009 that bookended the Great Recession, (Acharya, Philippon, Richardson, & Roubini, 2009;Duca, Muellbauer, & Murphy, 2010;Mazumder & Ahmad, 2010;Kuppuswamy & Villalonga, 2015;Pattavina et al, 2015), have been associated with an increased risk of experiencing IPV (Schneider, Harknett, & McLanahan, 2016). Yet, no research to our knowledge has directly examined how the relationship between neighborhood foreclosures and IPV varied over the entirety of the housing crisis.…”