National differences in female partner violence

In this WHO study of ever-partnered women in 10 countries, Ethiopia has the highest percent ever being physically or sexually assault by a partner--71 percent. Japan has the lowest with 15 percent. The authors chalk it up to differences in economic development. I'm not so sure.

Racial differences in domestic violence

In a recent post, I suggested racial differences in violence in personal situations like a caregiver abusing an elderly person. I plan to look for any kind of relevant data, but I did find a question on a college survey that asked: "For an average month, indicate how often one of your parents or stepparents delivered physical blows to the other."

13.3 percent of the 330 black college students answered at least one time per month, compared to 7.6 percent of the 1,135 Caucasian students. The differences are significantly different at the 95 percent confidence level (two-tail test). So blacks are 1.8 times as likely to assault the child's other parent monthly. I find this striking (no pun intended) given that so many black parents are split up, not married, do not live at the same place, and thus have fewer opportunities to fight.

Religiosity and domestic violence

The National Couples Survey asked 320 whites if they've been in a physical fight with their spouse, and if they were religious. The percent listed below answered yes to the violence:


Percent
Very religious 6.0
Somewhat religious 10.3
Not religious 11.4


Couples who are not religious are almost twice as likely to be violent as those who are very religious.

Race, class, and domestic violence

According to the conventional wisdom, blacks are more violent than whites because of poverty.  Researchers, who are supposed to get beyond the cliches, have rarely tested this idea, and it doesn't help that the relevant data is scarce.

The National Couples Survey asked married people (N = 1,181) if they had ever had a "physical argument." I limited the sample to respondents who had graduated high school--but who had gone no further--in order to eliminate variation in social class. Here are the percentages saying there has been physical fighting in the marriage:

Percent
Whites 10.9
Blacks 28.6*
Hispanics 23.2*
Asians 17.9
American Indians 20.0

* p < .05, two-tailed test, compared with whites.


Married blacks at the same level of education as whites are almost 3 times more likely to be violent. Hispanics are more than twice as likely. Sample sizes are so small, the Asian/white and Amerindian/white differences are not significant.

Fear-mongering feminists

Readers have expressed skepticism that feminists are pushing the idea that marriage is dangerous for women because of the high risk of wife battery. Here's a little visual evidence I found on the Internet.