Violence between Spouses and Intimates: Does Neighborhood Context Matter?

Using Duval County, Florida, law enforcement data for 1992 and data from the 1990 census, this study explores whether neighborhood context is as important in explaining census-tract-level variation in the incidence of violence between spouses and intimate partners as it is in explaining violence between others who know each other. The regression models adjust for spatial autocorrelation. This study finds that neighborhoods with great resource deprivation also have dramatically higher rates of violence between intimates. The presence of multiple-unit dwellings and transient populations is not significantly related to intimate violence, but contrary to expectations, it is negatively associated with violence involving others who know each other. The amount of variance explained in the intimate violence model is substantially smaller, indicating a lesser role for neighborhood effects.