Neighborhoods and Intimate Partner Violence

Product Description Wright uses data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to examine the effects of neighborhood structural characteristics and intervening social mechanisms of collective efficacy, social ties, culture, and disorder on intimate partner violence victimization among females. She finds that partner violence is not solely an individual-level phenomenon and that the mechanisms identified by social disorganization theory appear to explain neighborhood influences on intimate partner violence. In particular, neighborhood concentrated immigration, collective efficacy, social ties and satisfaction with police reduce violence between partners while concentrated disadvantage, legal cynicism, and physical disorder increase such violence. She demonstrates that social disorganization theory can be applied to non-street forms of violence, such as intimate partner violence. About the Author Emily M. Wright is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina. Her research interests involve intimate partner violence and victimization (IPV) among women and female offenders, the effects of exposure to IPV among children, and IPV in neighborhood context. She received her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati.