THE SOCIAL ECOLOGY OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Despite more than three decades of research on the topic of violence against women, the relative contribution of individual, family and community factors to victimization risk remains unknown. We use self-report data from the Area-Identified National Crime Victimization Survey to study the correlates of stranger, nonstranger and intimateʹpartner violence against women. Regardless of victim-offender relationship, we find that the risk for victimization is highest among young, single women with children, particularly those who have lived in the current home for relatively shorter periods. Area family and age composition appear to have stronger direct relationships with womenʹs violence than poverty or racial composition measures. We also find there to be more similarities than differences in the individual, family, and community correlates of stranger, nonstranger and intimate partner violence. We discuss these findings as part of the growing body of multilevel literature on violence and on violence against women.