An examination of whether coordinated community responses affect intimate partner violence.

This study tests the impact of coordinated community response (CCR) on reducing intimate partner violence (IPV) and on modifying knowledge and attitudes. The authors conduct hierarchical linear modeling of data from a stratified random-digit dial telephone survey (n = 12,039) in 10 test and 10 control sites, which include 23 counties from different regions in the United States, to establish the impact of a CCR on community members' attitudes toward IPV, knowledge and use of available IPV services, and prevalence of IPV. Findings indicate that CCRs do not affect knowledge, beliefs, or attitudes of IPV, knowledge and use of available IPV services, nor risk of exposure to IPV after controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, income, and education. Women in communities with 6-year CCRs (as opposed to 3-year CCRs) are less likely to report any aggression against them in the past year. These results are discussed within the context of evaluation challenges of CCRs (e.g., IPV activities in comparison communities, variability across interventions, time lag for expected impact, and appropriateness of outcome indicators) and in light of the evidence of the impact of other community-based collaborations.

Exploring the links between components of coordinated community responses and their impact on contact with intimate partner violence services.

In the 1990s, concerns with response fragmentation for intimate partner violence (IPV) led to the promotion of coordinated community responses (CCRs) to prevent and control IPV. Evaluation of CCRs has been limited. A previous evaluation of 10 CCRs funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed no overall impact on rates of IPV when compared to matched communities. However, there was great variability in the quality and quantity of CCR efforts between sites and thus potentially different levels of impact. This article establishes the impact of each of the 10 CCRs on women's past-year exposure to IPV and contact with IPV services and explores the associations between specific CCR components and contact with IPV services.

A comparison of help seeking between Latino and non-Latino victims of intimate partner violence.

Analyses based on a random-digit-dial survey of households (N = 12,039) compared Latinos and non-Latinos on sociodemographic factors for intimate partner violence (IPV) and help seeking. Lifetime prevalence of IPV was found to be lower for Latinos than for non-Latinos, but past-year prevalence of IPV was greater for Latinos. Reported IPV victimization was greater among non-Latinos than among Latinos at education levels below college and at family incomes less than $35,000. Informal help seeking was found to be similar for Latinos and non-Latinos; however, non-Latinos reported seeking access to shelters more frequently than Latinos, and Latino immigrants were less likely than non-immigrants to seek help from formal agencies.

National estimates of sexual violence treated in emergency departments.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: There is little information about sexual violence cases treated in emergency departments (EDs). This study describes ED visits associated with sexual violence and considers the associated health care burden. METHODS: A descriptive analysis was conducted using nationally representative data on nonfatal injury-related ED visits identified in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP) as sexual violence. To better understand these NEISS-AIP data, additional information about ED management of cases was collected, and additional information was collected from NEISS-AIP coders to determine the percentage of hospitals serving as designated examination facilities for sexual assault. RESULTS: Of all assault visits to the ED, 4.2% were sexual assault related, which represents an estimated 143,647 ED visits for sexual assault in 2001 to 2002. The majority of sexual assault-related visits involved female and young patients. Nearly half of ED visits for sexual violence had missing perpetrator data. Additional data from hospitals revealed that in 77.8% of the 54 sexual assault cases, someone with specific training completed the examination, and the majority of the hospitals in this study serve as designated examination facilities for sexual assault. CONCLUSION: Given the dearth of national data on sexual violence cases presented at US EDs, the data presented in this article are useful to understand the impact of sexual violence on the health care system at a national level. More complete documentation of sexual assault-related cases in EDs is needed to get a better estimate of the problem in future studies.