Repeat Victimization Among Intimate Partner Violence Victims: The Impact of Guardianship

Abstract

Despite progress in the application of routine activity theory to violence against women, much remains unknown about guardianship. The current study examined if presence of a capable adult guardian limited the risk of revictimization by an intimate partner, controlling for social support (N = 497). Analyses tested differential impacts of guardians by examining if the presence of the victim’s friends/family, abuser’s friends/family, and/or bystander during the earliest reported physical abuse incident or threat of abuse affected likelihood of revictimization within a year. Odds of revictimization decreased by 60% when the earliest reported physical abuse incident or threat of abuse occurred in the presence of the respondent’s friends/family. Implications for practices and research suggestions are discussed.

The Sexual Victimization of College Students: A Test of Routine Activity Theory

“…To begin, our findings indicate that, within the context of a college sample, guardianship does not appear to be significantly associated with sexual violence. This finding contradicts previous studies that find guardianship decreases risk of victimization (Hayes, 2018). This contradiction has two possible explanations.…”

“…The current study builds on extant work that has demonstrated the applicability of an integrated feminist RAT to SA (Franklin et al, 2012), intimate partner violence (Hayes, 2018), and cyberstalking (Reyns et al, 2011). More specifically, we test the applicability of RAT to understand risk of rape and SA–conceptually similar, but different forms of sexual violence.…”

Exploring the Immediate Effects of COVID-19 Containment Policies on Crime: an Empirical Analysis of the Short-Term Aftermath in Los Angeles

“…Patriarchy and gender inequality are often considered to be the root causes of intimate partner violence; yet, situational determinants are also recognized as influencing this form of crime (Wilkinson & Hamerschlag, 2005 ). As a consequence of the spread of COVID-19, couples–including dysfunctional ones–spend more time together in their homes with a reduced presence of possible informal guardians like relatives and acquaintances, two factors that may lead to an increase in violence outbreaks (Hayes, 2018 ). At the same time, the strain caused by the pandemic makes people more likely to respond with anger to confrontations and to be less concerned about hurting others thus possibly boosting violent crimes (Agnew, 2001 ; Broidy, 2001 ), both in the period under mild policies and even more in that under stricter ones.…”

Understanding Domestic Violence in India During COVID-19: a Routine Activity Approach

“…Previous studies documented that one of the unique aspects about applying RAT to understand domestic violence is that the theory focuses on the situational factors related to crime victimization (Mannon 1997;Miethe et al 1987;Hayes 2018). For example, Hayes (2018) found that the presence of a victim's friends/family contributed to a 60% decrease in revictimization (Hayes 2018). The study mentioned that examining one of the factors identified by RAT, i.e., the absence of a capable guardian, contributed to a better understanding of domestic violence.…”