Nonlethal Intimate Partner Violence: Examining Race, Gender, and Income Patterns

Abstract

The correlation between race of victim and intimate partner violence (IPV) is examined. Previous research showing a relationship between Black victims and higher levels of violence were based on uni-variate examinations and often do not consider other important factors. This paper presents national estimates of IPV by victim's race using the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 1993-1999. The estimates based only on race are then disaggregated to account for the victim's gender and household income. Uni-variate findings demonstrate that victim's race is significantly related to rates of intimate partner violence. However, after controlling for both victim's gender and annual household income, the victim's race is no longer significant. The importance of understanding intimate partner violence through a person's socioeconomic status rather than race is discussed.

Racial/Ethnic Variations in Violence Against Women: Urban, Suburban, and Rural Differences

“…However, it is important to recognize that these tests did not control for other important correlates of intimate victimization such as personal income, family structure, and neighborhood disadvantage (see e.g., Lauritsen & Schaum 2004;Rennison & Planty 2003). Failure to account for these and other characteristics may have resulted in our inability to uncover a consistent relationship between racial/ethnic characteristics and intimate victimization across geographic areas.…”

A Multi-Systems Life Course Perspective of Economic Abuse

“…A MSLC wage-gap analysis serves as a means of understanding how the intersections of culture, class, race, and ethnicity differentially magnify women's experiences of IPV-EA (see Figure 1; Bent-Goodley, 2005;Rennison & Planty, 2003;Sokoloff & Dupont, 2005). Previously articulated pay disparities experienced by women of color and poor, lesbian, and older women (National Women's Law Center, 2016) suggest that some women are also vulnerable to intersectional structures of race, class, sexual orientation, and age inequality that can exacerbate their vulnerability of IPV-EA by partners (Bent-Goodley, 2005;Sokoloff & Dupont, 2005).…”

“…In the United States, the legacy of slavery and colonization has resulted in longstanding structural income inequality, economic oppression, and negative stereotypes in which women of color are disproportionately represented as a high-risk group for EA (Rennison & Planty, 2003;Valandra, Murphy-Erby, Higgins, & Brown, 2016). Brush (2004) notes that in the United States women of color are disproportionately represented among recipients of public welfare, a context in which poverty, welfare, work, and vulnerability to IPV and EA intersect.…”

Predictors of Injury Associated with Rape

“…Although some research reported significant associations between black victims and higher levels of violence, these studies were often based on univariate analysis (Rennison & Planty, 2003a). Interactions with other variables such as socioeconomic status and region of the US may reduce the significance of race.…”

“…Others report that women are most often raped by someone known to them (Basile, 2002;Rennison & Planty, 2003a;Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000b).…”