This study of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in households in contact with the criminal legal system at a time of mass incarceration finds that in such contexts women may be at higher risk of IPV victimization.
This study explores the social ecology of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women by fitting structural equation models to longitudinal, dyadic data from households in contact with the criminal legal system (N = 2,224) and their local communities. Results suggest that a complex of factors at multiple social-ecological levels—including adverse local conditions, dysfunctional couple conflict, and men's behavioral health and perceptions of their neighborhoods—may put women at heightened risk of IPV victimization in a time of mass incarceration. Women in heavily policed and incarcerated communities face extremely high rates of intimate partner violence (IPV); this study attempts to understand how criminal legal system contact affects such violence. (Published Abstract Provided)