Individual and Relationship Characteristics Associated with Women Initiated Physical Violence (WIPV) Among Abused Women in Baltimore and the US Virgin Islands

Introduction:  Each year, greater numbers of women are arrested for intimate partner violence (IPV) and placed in offender based programs. African American women are disproportionately represented among women reporting IPV perpetration in national surveys with 30% of African American women compared to 21% of Hispanics and 16% of Caucasian women. However, many women arrested for IPV perpetration, 60% in some samples, are victims of IPV who have used aggression in the context of male perpetrated violence. Consequently, a disproportionate amount of Black women arrested for IPV may be inaccurately labeled as primary or mutual aggressors and treated as offenders opposed to victims. Thus, study seeks to identify individual and relationship characteristics associated with women initiated physical violence (WIPV) among abused women of African descent. Methods: This cross-sectional study is part of a large multi-site project that involved women of African descent from the US mainland (Baltimore, MD) and the US Virgin Islands (St Croix and St. Thomas). Participants of the study included 435 women reporting a history of intimate partner violence and responding to the questions concerning WIPV as well as relationship violence and infidelity questions. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were used to assess the association between sociodemographic variables, relationship violence and infidelity variables. Results and Discussion of Findings: Overall, when controlling for additional variables, sociodemographic characteristics were not significant predictors of WIPV across all three sites. Also consistent across all three sites were that women experiencing increased severity of IPV were more likely to report WIPV. In Baltimore, fear of abuser and abuser sexual infidelity were additional predictors of WIPV. Women who reported that they were not scared of their abuser or suspected the abuser of sexual infidelity were more likely to report WIPV. These variables were not significant for St. Thomas or St. Croix. It is likely that cultural inconsistencies account for differences in findings across sites.  Conclusions and Future Research: Policy makers and law enforcement officials should emphasize understanding context in order to more accurately identify the primary aggressor within the relationship instead of the primary aggressor at that event. The findings indicate that WIPV may be a result of self-defense and/or an expression of frustration and anger toward abusive/ unfaithful partners. Furthermore, domestic violence batterer programs should incorporate a screening process to determine if women mandated to their program are truly primary aggressors or victims of intimate partner violence.