Fighting Families: Family Characteristics Associated with Domestic Violence in Five Latin American Countries

DOI: 10.1007/s10896-005-9002-2Journal of Family Violence, Vol. 21, No. 1, January 2006 ( C 2006)Fighting Families: Family Characteristics Associated

with Domestic Violence in Five Latin American CountriesDallan F. Flake1 and Renata Forste1,2Published online: 8 April 2006This study uses data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHSs) to examine the relationship

between familial characteristics and the likelihood of experiencing domestic violence in Colombia, the

Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Peru. Logistic regression techniques are used to measure

relationships between marital status, family size, partner alcohol use, socioeconomic status (SES),

decision-making power, and education homogamy and the likelihood of experiencing partner violence.

Cohabitation, female-dominant decision making, and partner alcohol are positively associated with

domestic violence across datasets. Family size, SES, and education homogamy emerged as statistically

significant in some, but not all of the datasets. This study helps clarify the profile of the abused Latina

and also tests the applicability of current abuse research to a non-Western setting.KEY WORDS: Latin America; spouse abuse; family violence; marital violence.INTRODUCTIONDomestic violence3 is one of Latin Americas most

pressing social problems, as each year between 10 and

35% of Latina women are physically abused by their

partners (Buvinic et al., 1999). Whereas the region is

notorious for its high rates of political and social violence, much less understood is the violence that occurs

behind closed doorsbetween husbands and wives. With

so much attention centered on Latin Americas corruption,

crime, and political instability, it is easily overlooked that

the family is perhaps this regions most violent social

institution.Although domestic violence research has reached unprecedented heights, relatively little is known about how

spouse abuse functions outside traditional Western regions

of study such as North America and Europe. Culture is

known to affect the magnitude and characteristics of inti-1Department of Sociology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.2To whom correspondence should be addressed at Department of Sociology, Brigham Young University, 2032 JFSB, Provo, UT 84602;

e-mail: renata [email protected] While numerous forms of aggression are incorporated into the term

domestic violence, the present study focuses exclusively on domestic

violence involving physical abuse between heterosexual partners.mate violence in different societies (Holtzworth-Munroe

et al., 1997), but because few studies compare these issues

in different cultural contexts, it remains unclear if presentday abuse research can be applied to non-Western settings.

A few...