Partner violence surrounding divorce: A record‐linkage study of wives and their husbands

Abstract

Objective This study analyzes the victimization trajectories of partner violence against women surrounding divorce, depending on whether the couple has children together. Background Prior studies have found that partner violence is associated with an increased risk of divorce. No study has assessed the victimization trajectories surrounding divorce for women with and without children, although women with children may remain at higher risk of violence following divorce. Method Using Finnish record‐linkage data of 22,468 divorced and 333,542 continuously married women and their husbands, we used repeated‐measures logistic regression analyses to assess changes in victimization for partner violence before and after divorce. The outcomes considered were police‐reported crimes committed by husbands against their wives and hospital‐treated assault injuries recorded for wives. Results The risk of crime victimization for partner assault was already elevated from 2 to 3 years before divorce, peaked in the year prior to divorce, and then mainly leveled off 1–2 years after divorce. Hospital data show that the time of the greatest risk was from 6 to 12 months before divorce, when divorce is usually filed for. Women with younger children experienced elevated risks of physical violence shortly before divorce and remained at higher risk of menace than women without children for a year after divorce. Conclusion Divorcing women committed assaults against their husbands, but these were mostly accompanied by victimization, suggesting that resistant violence was common for women as perpetrators. Women with a history of victimization need support, especially at the starts of their divorce processes.

Pregnant Women's experiences with intimate partner violence one year after the COVID‐19 pandemic in Jordan

“…This finding could be attributed to the fact that the longer the marriage period, the greater the understanding that the spouses have for each other, which leads to less tension and results in less confrontation and physical violence. Furthermore, it's possible that violent marriages end more quickly than non‐violent ones, as divorce rate is higher when there has been IPV (Einiö et al, 2022 ). However, our result contradicts Adebowale ( 2018 ), who found that couples who had been married for 0–4 years have experienced less IPV than those who had been married for 5–9 years.…”

“…in less confrontation and physical violence. Furthermore, it's possible that violent marriages end more quickly than non-violent ones, as divorce rate is higher when there has been IPV (Einiö et al, 2022).…”

A simple metric for predicting repeated intimate partner violence harm based on the level of harm of the index offence (… as long as a non-linear statistic is applied)

“…The false positives in the same period totalled 12,279 cases of no serious harm among 12,301 cases receiving high-risk assessments, for a 99% false positive rate (Chalkley and Strang, 2017). Instead, the offender's self-harm, weapons, mental health and the prospect of a divorce are stronger predictors of serious IPV (ibid; see also Einiö et al ., 2022), but these are often data points that do not appear in police records, based on which a more valid prediction model can be built.…”

Siviilisäätyryhmittäiset erot sydän- ja verisuonitaudeissa

“…Tätä perustelee myös se, että tutkimusta siviilisäätyryhmittäisistä ter veyseroista on julkaistu viime vuosina paljon liit tyen juuri sydän ja verisuonitauteihin ja niiden riskitekijöihin. Kuitenkin on huomattavaa, että siviilisäätyryhmittäisiä eroja on myös monissa muissa terveyteen liittyvissä tekijöissä kuten ul koisissa kuolemansyissä (6) ja mielenterveydes sä (7) ja lisäksi esimerkiksi avioeroon voi liittyä väkivallan uhkaa (8). Siviilisääty vaikuttaa siis hyvin laajaalaisesti ihmisen terveyteen.…”