NCJ Number
190143
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 7 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2001 Pages: 886-899
Date Published
August 2001
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study examined risk factors for physical injuries that resulted from partner violence by using data from the Canadian Violence Against Women Survey.
Abstract
The survey was conducted by Statistics Canada between February and June of 1993. The nationally representative sample was selected by using random digit dialing. To be eligible for the study, a respondent had to be at least 18 years old. The final sample included 12,300 women who were interviewed by telephone about their victimization experiences since the age of 16 years old by spouses and cohabiting partners, former spouses and former cohabiting partners, dates and boyfriends, other known men, and strangers. Interviewers, all of whom were women, were trained in telephone interviewing and survey design procedures. The results of multivariate analyses indicated that experiencing violence before the union, having a partner who was drinking at the time of the assault, having children who witnessed the assault, experiencing previous violence by the same partner, fearing one's life was in danger, and experiencing high level of emotional abuse were related to an increased risk of both minor and severe injuries. Both models had good predictive value: 80-percent concordance rate when predicting minor injuries and 90-percent concordance rate when predicting severe injuries. Knowledge of a woman's status on these risk factors would allow public health practitioners to intervene with battered women more effectively to prevent injuries. Knowledge of a woman's status on the various factors revealed in this study would allow public health practitioners to intervene more effectively with women at risk for experiencing violence-related injuries perpetrated by spouses. 2 tables and 18 references