Study finds pattern in domestic violence cases
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 15, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Study finds pattern in domestic violence cases
African Americans in poor areas more likely to self-report
injuries
By Jennifer K. Morita
Daily Bruin Staff
In a study of married Americans, UCLA researchers revealed that
young African Americans who are poor urban dwellers are more likely
to self-report domestic violence.
School of Public Health epidemiologist Susan Sorenson found that
African Americans under the age of 30 with less than a high school
education or having a family income of less than $40,000 are at a
higher risk of reporting domestic violence. She analyzed data from
a 1987-88 national survey of 13,000 households.
UCLA researchers estimate that physical violence will affect
about 3 million married American couples annually and about 500,000
will sustain injuries.
"It fits into a bigger pattern of violence in the United
States," Sorenson said.
The risk group for domestic violence also has a high risk of
being victims of other types of interpersonal violence such as
street crime, the study showed.
According to experts, violence prevention programs in the United
States tend to address only one type of violence at a time.
"We have one-dimensional prevention methods," said Tony Borbon,
associate director of the Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater
Los Angeles. "Many violence prevention programs, because of the way
funding streams are based, can be driven to be singular.
"Because funding sources want to hear that organizations will be
tackling specific problems, only bigger agencies can broaden out,"
Borbon said.
But Sorenson explained in order to be more effective, violence
prevention programs need to address more than one type of
violence.
"Rather than designing programs that only address one type, we
need to take a broader look at violence as a whole," Sorenson said.
"We can’t … compare apples and oranges. It’s part of a bigger
problem we have in the United States of violence in general."
Relationship violence or family violence is often relegated to a
backseat position, said Lea Aldridge, the youth violence prevention
program director for the Los Angeles Commission on Assault Against
Women.
"That area is given the ugly stepchild place in that it’s not
really validated," Aldridge said. "People doing violence prevention
efforts across the country say that the most critical issues are
gangs and guns."
Aldridge added that people tend to address violence in a
vacuum.
"There is no one cause, nor should there be one solution," she
said. "We have to be very comprehensive in our approach and that is
the piece everyone seems to overlook."
Sorenson stressed that UCLA’s findings reveal only what people
self-report.
"It’s what people are willing to say," Sorenson said.
Findings also revealed that women were more likely to report
that their husbands were injured than men were willing to report
that their wives were injured.
"But women are more likely to be injured," Sorenson said, adding
that women seemed more willing to reveal information, including
details about their marriages.
"We can take some good news from the bad," said Sorenson. "Most
people reported discussing arguments calmly and never striking one
another. Very few reported being violent to one another."
Only 5 percent of men and 6 percent of women reported arguments
becoming physical, the study revealed.
"These kinds of studies add to the validity of what we’ve seen
parts of," Borbon said. "The under-represented population is not
getting any direct services. It helps us enhance our outreach and
reach people for early intervention rather than counting the
statistics at the other end."
Aldridge added that there is current legislation allocating
$500,000 for prevention education in the schools, which she said
amounts to about $10,000 per county.
"You will have people in Congress lobby against it because of
the money," Aldridge said, adding that people are more willing to
fund the building of new prisons. "They don’t see that prevention
works. But it happens over a period of 25 years or so and people
want quick fixes."Comments to [email protected]
