Intimate Partner Violence Dynamics and Help Seeking Among Mexican Women: Results From a 2016 National Household Survey

• Published in: Journal of interpersonal violence Vol. 37; no. 5-6; pp. 2681 - 2704
• Main Author: Frías, Sonia M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2022; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Abused women; Civil service; Collective representation; Divorce; Domestic violence; Family Violence; Females; Help Seeking; Help seeking behavior; Heterosexuality; Hispanic people; Institutions; Intimate partner violence; Law enforcement; National Surveys; Polls & surveys; Resistance; State Surveys; Violence; law-enforcement; intimate terrorism; domestic violence; violent resistance; disclosure of domestic violence; coercive control
• ISSN: 0886-2605; 1552-6518
• DOI: 10.1177/0886260520938502

Using the recent 2016 National Survey on Household Dynamics (N = 98,768 heterosexual Mexican women currently married, cohabiting, separated, divorced, or dating with a noncohabiting partner), this study has three objectives: first, to assess the prevalence of different intimate partner violence (IPV) dynamics, including situational couple’s violence (SCV), intimate terrorism (IT), and violent resistance (VR); second, to empirically operationalize VR; and, third, to study women’s help-seeking behaviors in public institutions, whether these are associated with violent dynamics and the type of responses offered by public institutions. Descriptive and multivariate logistic analyses show that, in the year prior to the survey, 5.8% of women experienced SCV, 1.2% IT and 0.6% VR. SCV is the most prevalent, but separated and divorced women are involved in IT and VR to a greater extent. Only 8.3% of females involved in IPV sought formal help from public institutions. Help seeking from public institutions is contingent upon violent dynamics and sociodemographic characteristics. Law enforcement and public security institutions fail to accept all IPV complaints and investigate them (especially in the case of VR), perhaps because women who seek help do not meet the social representation of battered women. The need to educate civil servants and service providers on the different dynamics of IPV, and recommendations for guaranteeing women greater access to public institutions that might be instrumental in putting an end to the violence are discussed in the Mexican context.