NCJ Number
136005
Date Published
1992
Length
38 pages
Annotation
This study, conducted in New South Wales (Australia), addresses the question of how domestic violence is distributed in the community and what social and economic factors exacerbate it by examining the distribution of domestic homicide with the distribution of non-fatal domestic violence.
Abstract
The study was based on the hypothesis that women who live in more affluent areas are less likely to report domestic violence to the police than women who are socially disadvantaged; therefore, there should be significant differences between the spatial distribution of domestic homicide and that of reports of other incidents of domestic violence. In fact, the results confirmed a close correlation between domestic homicide and reported non-fatal domestic violence, corroborating earlier findings that disadvantaged women are more likely to be victimized than more affluent women. These findings have implications for social policy geared toward victims of domestic violence. Future research should address how economic stresses interact with male attitudes toward violence. 2 tables, 4 figures, 55 references, and 2 appendixes