NCJ Number
130741
Date Published
Unknown
Length
36 pages
Annotation
Data collected from interviews with a nationally representative sample of 2,133 white, Hispanic, and black couples were used to examine the relationship between ethnicity, drinking, and wife abuse.
Abstract
The findings suggested that a subculture of machismo drinking existed most strongly among Hispanic men, who were more likely than other groups to have been drinking when they abused their wives. Hispanic women with binge-drinking husbands were 10 times more likely than wives of low or moderate drinking husbands to have been assaulted. Black men above the poverty level who were excessive daily drinkers and black men below the poverty level who were binge drinkers also had high rates of violence against their wives. However, overall drinking levels among black men were low. While the combinations of cultural and structural influences of race with drinking and excessive alcohol consumption with poverty were strongly associated with wife abuse, the results did indicate that the linkages between drunkenness and domestic assault were not limited to poor, ethnic minorities. The author maintains that drunken violence engaged in by men of any ethnicity may be mediated by their normative approval of violence toward wives and their interpretation of cultural expectations about their behavior. 3 tables, 2 figures, 7 notes, and 79 references (Author abstract modified)