NCJ Number
130602
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: (1991) Pages: 3-15
Date Published
1991
Length
13 pages
Annotation
As part of the Los Angeles Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) study, 3,132 Mexican American and non-Hispanic white adults were surveyed regarding their experiences with spousal violence.
Abstract
Of the 1,243 Mexican Americans from East Los Angeles, 705 were born in Mexico and 538 in the United States. The remaining survey participants, 1,149 non-Hispanic whites born in the United States, served as a control group. Interview questions assessed demographic variables such as ethnicity, immigration status, mental disorder, gender, age, and marital status as well as violence and maltreatment from the perspectives of perpetration and victimization. Over 20 percent of the respondents indicated that they had, at one or more times in their lives, hit or thrown things at their current or former spouse or partner (spousal violence). Mexican Americans born in Mexico and non-Hispanic whites born in the United States reported nearly equivalent rates (20.1 percent, and 21.6 percent, respectively) of spousal violence. Immigration appeared as an important factor in such violence for Mexican Americans born in the United States who reported the highest rate of 30.19 percent. Overall rates of sexual assault were lower for Mexican Americans. However, one-third of the most recent incidents of sexual assault reported by Mexico-born Mexican American women involved the husband and approximated rape. 3 tables, 3 notes, and 31 references (Author abstract modified)