Physical Violence Among Anglo, African American, and Hispanic Couples: Ethnic Differences in Persistence and Cessation

Research on violence against women has developed exponentially during the past 30 years, but there are still many areas in which knowledge is scarce. In particular, there is very little empirical information regarding the cessation and persistence of intimate violence against women, and even less research on racial and ethnic differences in patterns of violence. The small amount of research that considers the possibility of multiple types of relationships is limited by a lack of developmental data with which to effectively evaluate changes in the occurrence of violence over time, reliance on information provided by only one partner in the couple, and small sample sizes. This study uses data from the first and second waves of the National Survey of Families and Households to examine changing patterns of physical violence in a sample of approximately 3,000 married and cohabiting couples. The study concludes that the factors that might increase the initial risk for violent behavior may not affect the continuance of this behavior. Additionally, the same risk factors may be related in different ways to different patterns of violence for different racial/ethnic groups. Tables, references