Advocates in the field of intimate partner violence (IPV) have started to more actively engage survivors around their own perceptions of their lethality risk, as well as assist them in developing strategies for reducing and managing risk related to reassault and intimate partner homicide (IPH). Although research has examined the risk factors most associated with risk and utilized this information in the development and validation of risk assessment tools to be used with survivors, less is known about which indicators survivors most associate with lethality risk. This study aims to fill this gap by examining which risk indicators IPV survivors associate with fatality risk. Classification and regression tree analyses were used to differentiate between women who believed their partners were capable of killing them and those who did not. Data on a sample of 213 survivors of IPV used in this analysis were collected as part of a larger study in which a risk assessment instrument was piloted across four counties within New Jersey in 2016. More than three fourths of participants believed that their abuser was capable of killing them. Alhough the majority of survivors in the study felt as though their abusers were capable of killing them, there was variation in how survivors prioritized risk indicators. Factors associated with fatality risk included: (a) prior homicide threats; (b) whether the abusers had control over survivors’ daily activities; (c) abusers’ access to a gun; and (d) abusers’ drug use. Findings suggest that IPV survivors need targeted intervention strategies around IPH, particularly those at higher perceived risk levels given the presence of risk indicators and their perceptions of lethality threat.

There are calls for sexual violence prevention to be more comprehensive and align with a socio-ecological approach. However, there is lack of models with specificity on how to engage additional stakeholders. Whole School Approach (WSA) frameworks have been used to address health promotion and bullying prevention and can be a useful model for guiding campus sexual violence prevention work. WSA models situate violence as a community issue and one where all community members have a role to play in prevention. Rather than focusing on addressing individual behavior, WSA frameworks address the role of the larger school environment in serving as a protective factor against violence, abuse, and harassment. A review of the literature on WSA frameworks in other disciplines reveals a number of potential ways to translate key elements of WSA models to the field of campus sexual violence prevention. In particular, mechanisms can be applied to expand the role of students, faculty, staff, parents/significant adults, institutional leadership, and the larger community.

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Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a severe public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with harmful effects on the physical, psychological, and socioeconomic wellbeing of survivors and their families. In SSA, IPV is associated with mental health disorders, high-risk behaviors, and HIV vulnerability, especially among women. In Uganda, poor socioeconomic status increases women’s vulnerability to IPV. Yet there is limited evidence on the association between socioeconomic factors and IPV severity in Uganda. Our study used population-based data to (a) establish different patterns describing the severity of IPV experiences, (b) explore associations between socioeconomic factors and severity of IPV experiences among Ugandan ever-married women, and (c) examine direct and indirect pathways from socioeconomic factors to severity of IPV experiences. Data were drawn from the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey’s sample of 7,536 ever-married women aged 15–49 years. A latent class analysis examined distinct patterns of IPV severity among this sample, yielding a four-class solution: low violence ( n = 5,059; 67.1%); high physical violence, low sexual violence ( n = 1,501; 19.9%); high sexual violence, moderate physical violence ( n = 535; 7.1%); and high sexual and severe physical violence ( n = 441; 5.9%). Using the low violence group as the reference category, we conducted a multinomial logistic regression that found significant associations between secondary education (a OR 2.35, 95% CI: [1.06, 5.24]), poorest on the wealth index (a OR 2.00, 95% CI: [1.13, 3.54]), and severe IPV experiences. Decision-making (a OR 0.81, 95% CI: [0.68, 0.96]) played a protective role against membership in the high sexual and physical violence class compared to the reference category. Using path analysis, we found that labor force participation partially mediated the path from wealth index and education to IPV severity. Findings indicate the need for interventions that aim to keep girls in school and target schools, communities, and media platforms to address gender norms, economic vulnerability, and comprehensive screening for multiple forms of violence.