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Explaining the Recent Decline in Domestic Violence
Author(s) -
Farmer Amy,
Tiefenthaler Jill
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
contemporary economic policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.454
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1465-7287
pISSN - 1074-3529
DOI - 10.1093/cep/byg002
Subject(s) - domestic violence , demographic economics , economic justice , population , criminology , incidence (geometry) , political science , human factors and ergonomics , psychology , demography , poison control , economics , sociology , medicine , environmental health , law , optics , physics
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the incidence of domestic violence decreased during the 1990s. Understanding the causes of this decline could offer important insight into designing effective policies to continue this trend. This article uses the Area‐Identified National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the same data used to generate the DOJ's national estimates, merged with county‐level variables, to examine the determinants of women reporting abuse. The results indicate that there are three important factors that likely contribute to the decline: (1) the increased provision of legal services for victims of intimate partner abuse, (2) improvements in women's economic status, and (3) demographic trends, most notably the aging of the population.