Alfred DeMaris

Neighborhood Disadvantage, Individual Economic Distress and Violence Against Women in Intimate Relationships

A continuing debate in sociological criminology involves the association of crime with economic disadvantage at both aggregate and individual levels of analysis. At the aggregate level, data from law enforcement sources suggest that rates of intimate violence are higher in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Disadvantaged neighborhoods may experience higher rates of intimate violence for compositional or contextual reasons, or rates may only appear to be higher because of differential reporting. Similarly, at the individual level, intimate violence appears more common among couples that are economically distressed, but whether economic distress triggers intimate violence is not certain. Using data from waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households and from the 1990 U.S. Census, we investigate the effects of neighborhood economic disadvantage and individual economic distress on intimate violence against women. Controlling for violence at time 1 and other individual level characteristics, we find that neighborhood economic disadvantage, neighborhood residential instability, male employment instability, and subjective financial strain influence the likelihood of violence at time 2. The relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and intimate violence appears to reflect both compositional and contextual effects.

Explained variance in logistic regression: A Monte Carlo study of proposed measures

R²is widely relied on in linear regression to index a models discriminatory power. Many counterparts have been proposed for use in logistic regression, but no single measure is consistently used. Two potential criterion values are relevant: the explained variance in the latent scale underlying the binary indicator of event occurrence and the explained risk of the event itself. In this study, Monte Carlo methods were used to examine the performance, with respect to fixed theoretical levels of explained variance and explained risk, of eight R²analogues. The McKelvey-Zavoina measure appears to be best at estimating explained variance and either the sample-estimated explained risk or the ordinary least squares R²to be best at indexing explained risk. Other measures appear to be poor choices, primarily because asymptotic trends suggest they may be inconsistent estimators of the relevant criterion.

Detangling Individual-, Partner-, and Community-level Correlates of Partner Violence

This article attempted to identify neighborhood- partner- and individual-level factors that may lead to male-to-female partner violence. The relevant dimensions of community context were derived from social disorganization theory that indicates that disorganized areas lack formal and informal controls that inhibit street violence. Social disorganization theory predicts that there is a higher rate of violence and social isolation in disorganized areas. At the individual level, women who experience less social support will more likely be victimized by partner violence. This article investigates the direct and interactive effects of social disorganization measures and variables from social support theories on male-to-female partner violence. The data come from Wave 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households completed in 1994 and from the 1990 census. Logistic regression was used to assess variation in the independent and dependent variables between and within neighborhood types. Results indicate that neighborhood effects interact with partner- and individual-level characteristics for a more complete explanation for male-to-female partner violence.

Premarital cohabitation and marital instability: a test of the unconventionality hypothesis.

This study examines whether the greater instability of marriages begun by premarital cohabitation can be accounted for by cohabitors greater unconventionality in family ideology. The hypothesis was largely unsupported. Although family attitudes and beliefs tend to predict the attractiveness of a cohabiting lifestyle they do not account for differences between cohabitors and noncohabitors in instability. Moreover controlling for background differences only serial cohabitation is associated with greater instability among intact first marriages of up to 10 years duration....Data for this study come from the [U.S.] National Survey of Families and Households 1987-88.... (EXCERPT)

Cohabitation with the Future Spouse: Its Influence upon Marital Satisfaction and Communication.

The relationship between cohabitation and subsequent marital quality was investigated with data from 309 recently married couples. Having cohabited premaritally was associated with significantly lower perceived quality of communication for wives and significantly lower marital satisfaction for both spouses. After controlling for sex-role traditionalism, church attendance, and other sociocultural differences between cohabitors and noncohabitors, having cohabited was still associated with slightly lower satisfaction for husbands and wives. The decrement in satisfaction associated with cohabitation is not accounted for either by differential commitment to marital permanence or by the greater amount of time in which cohabitors have been intimately involved.

Violent Victimization and Women's Mental and Physical Health: Evidence from a National Sample:

This study employs a sample of 7,700 women drawn from the Survey of Violence and Threats of Violence AgainstWomen and Men in the United States 1994 to 1996 to test hypotheses regarding the effects of violent victimization on womens mental and physical health. Violent victimization consisted of physical and sexual assaults, the lifecourse stage in which victimization first occurred, and the nature of the victimoffender relationship. Outcome variables were depressive symptomatology, concern for current safety, self-assessed health, and the occurrence of heavy episodic drinking. Findings suggested that physical and sexual-assault victimization had only modest effects on health outcomes, with the severity of physical assault having the most consistent association with poor health. The victim-offender relationship appeared most important for depressive symptomatology, with more symptoms being reported when the offender was someone known to the victim. No evidence was found that assaults first occurring in, say, childhood or adolescence, were more consequential for health than those first occurring in adulthood. The experience of child maltreatment appeared to be as important as other forms of victimization in presaging poor health outcomes.

Batterers’ Reports of Recidivism after Counseling

Former clients of a counseling program for spouse batterers were most likely to be recidivistic if they were living with their partners upon termination of counseling, if they had witnessed violence between their parents, or if they had problems with alcohol.

Attrition in batterers' counseling: the role of social and demographic factors

This study was designed to assess the extent to which social and demographic characteristics predict noncompletion of therapy by spouse batterers. Characteristics that were significantly associated with noncompletion of treatment were employment status, relationship to victim, timing of abuse, arrest record, alcohol problems, motivation to terminate violent behavior, age, income, and age of partner. In combination, however, these factors only improve prediction of noncompletion by about 12 percent over what would be obtained by chance. Although not measured in this study, the anticipated responses of either the criminal justice system or the batterers mate to termination of treatment are hypothesized to be key determinants of attrition.

The Efficacy of a Spouse Abuse Model in Accounting for Courtship Violence

A model consisting of social class, the balance of resources between partners, and experience with violence in the family of orientation—factors that have the greatest salience to spouse abuse—was tested on a sample of 484 white college students, most of whom were currently or previously involved in heterosexual relationships. For males, only being punished harshly as a child was significantly related to inflicting violence on a partner, while being the recipient of violence from a partner was related to both being punished harshly and seeing ones mother hit ones father. For females, the only significant effect was that females who believed that they should have control over the male in a relationship were more likely to be violent with a partner. It is suggested that models based on marital violence may have limited predictive power in accounting for violence during courtship.

Age at First Sexual Assault and Current Substance Use and Depression

This article explores how the association between sexual violence and substance use and mental health differs by race and life course stage. Analyses are based on data (n = 8,000) from the Violence and Threats of Violence against Women and Men in the United States Survey, 1994-1996 (NVAWS). Although sexual violence does not heighten the risk of problem drinking for White women, minority women victimized in adulthood are significantly more likely to engage in problem drinking and use illicit drugs. This suggests that for minority women the effects of recent victimization experiences result in immediate and potentially long-lasting consequences. The findings with respect to the association between sexual violence and depression are consistent with the child and adolescent development literature. It is Hispanic women who are more likely to suffer depression as a consequence of child sexual assault.