NCJ Number
222520
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 14 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2008 Pages: 483-495
Date Published
April 2008
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This exploratory study identified risk factors associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Abstract
Compared to a control group of women who were not experiencing IPV, the women who had been victims of IPV were older, having an average age of 28.3 compared with 24.9 years old as the average age for control-group women. Women in the IPV group had also been living with their partners longer (an average of 6.3 years compared with 3 years for control-group women). Frequent alcohol consumption by the male partner was another distinctive risk factor of IPV, as was the male partner's having witnessed his father hit his mother. A significant factor that reduced the likelihood of a woman experiencing IPV was living in a communal apartment, where facilities such as a bathroom and kitchen were shared with another family. Apparently, living in close proximity to other people was an inhibiting factor for engaging in IPV. The study, which was conducted between January 1, 1999, and January 1, 2001, recruited 25 women from 2 crisis centers in St. Petersburg and 20 pregnant women attending a birth house. All of the women had experienced IPV in their current relationship in the past year. The control group consisted of 33 pregnant women attending the same birth house who had not experienced IPV within the past year. The dependent variable was physical violence perpetrated by the male partner in the past year. Independent variables were the woman's educational level, educational differences between the woman and her partner, the family and the woman's income, her partner's employment status, her partner's alcohol consumption, and whether they were living in a separate or a communal apartment. Other independent variables were traumatic events in the family within the past year, and emotional and physical abuse within either the woman's or her partner's childhood family. 3 tables and 41 references