Violence Against Women Post-Separation

• NCJ Number: 215450
• Journal: Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 11 Issue: 5 Dated: September-October 2006 Pages: 514-530
• Author(s): Douglas A. Brownridge
• Date Published: September 2006
• Length: 17 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research); Literature Review
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This review of the research literature examined violence against women "post-separation," defined as "any type of violence perpetrated by a former married or cohabiting male partner or boyfriend subsequent to the moment of physical separation."

Abstract

Several studies over more than 30 years of research provide evidence that women are at risk for nonlethal violence post-separation. Most of this research has been published since the early 1990s. Further, research has found that women are at greater risk for nonlethal violence at the time of post-separation than women in an intact intimate relationship. In addition, research that has examined female homicides in different types of intimate relationships as a proportion of the population has found that separated women are at the highest risk of being killed by their former partners. Many risk markers have been identified as potentially associated with post-separation violence against women by former partners; however, they have not been integrated into a single organizational framework that can assist in understanding the complexity of post-separation violence. The author advises that regardless of whether women have a history of violence by their partner, they must be aware of the risk of post-separation violence and take appropriate steps to prevent it. This paper uses a "nested ecological" framework to categorize risk markers for post-separation violence. This framework divides risk markers into four levels: macrosystem (cultural values and attitudes that foster violence); exosystem (formal and informal social networks/structures in which the family is involved); microsystem (family or immediate setting in which the violence occurs); and ontogenic (individuals' development and what they bring to the other levels based on their development). The risk markers linked to each of the levels are identified and briefly discussed. 1 table and 66 references