Citation

Kurz D. Violence Against Women 1996; 2(1): 63-81.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12348986

Abstract

This study of domestic violence uses data gathered from interviews in 1987-88 from a random sample of 129 women with children who were divorced in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, courts in 1986 to demonstrate that violence is a significant determinant of divorce and that violence plays an important role during asset negotiations after marital separation. The study revealed that many of the women experienced violence during their marriages and stated that it was a factor in their leaving their husbands (19% left because of the violence). Women left their husbands after particularly serious violent incidents or when they believed that witnessing the violence was harming their children. This sample was not asked to specify if they experienced violence during or after marriage, but 4% of the women reported experiencing violence for the first time during the separation, 11 women volunteered that violence extended from their marriages into their separation, and 6 women faced immediate threats of violence during separation. Reports in the literature indicate that marital separation increases women's risk of injury and of death. The current study indicates that experiences of violence impeded women's ability to negotiate for marital assets and child support during separation or for visitation rights after the divorce. Several women were also afraid to try to obtain increases in child support or to force their husbands to pay ordered amounts. Policy implications include the necessity of providing women with guaranteed child support and of exercising caution when recommending divorce mediation.

Language: en