NCJ Number
219786
Journal
Revue de l' IPC Review Volume: 1 Dated: March 2007 Pages: 69-88
Date Published
March 2007
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This overview of progress and challenges in preventing violence against women addresses risk factors for violence against women, identification of causal factors, normative societal attitudes and beliefs about women, and elements of successful prevention programs.
Abstract
The availability of reliable data with which to assess risk and protective factors regarding violence against women has grown significantly over the past two decades. Victimization surveys, longitudinal studies, and smaller localized studies have provided researchers and practitioners with a data-based foundation for planning prevention strategies. For sexual assault and intimate partner violence, the primary crimes cited as disproportionately involving women victims, one area of risk factors is at the individual level. For sexual assault, these risk factors include sexual attitudes and beliefs supportive of sexual violence, a history of physical or sexual abuse, impulsive and antisocial behavior, and alcohol and drug abuse. For intimate partner violence, individual risk factors include the use of emotional abuse and control, alcohol abuse, and witnessing or experiencing violence in childhood. Other risk factors pertain to relationship dynamics, community norms, and criminal justice factors that show bias against female victims of violence. In order to prevent a specific type of crime, it must be clearly named and understood at the societal level. Women experience violence against a background of ambiguous cultural norms regarding definitions of violence, the level of harm to victims, victims' blameworthiness, and the importance of gender in understanding the dynamics of violence and the social context and cultural supports for it. Prevention of violence against women requires comprehensive strategies that involve social institutions, cultural norms, attitudinal change at the individual level, and supports for victims. 1 table, 1 figure, and 30 references