Noted Domestic Violence Researcher to Speak at UWM Event

MILWAUKEE - Your mama and your girlfriends are right - even if you've never been hit, a partner who's controlling, jealous, violent and has a problem with drugs or alcohol is bad news.

Those traits are good predictors of potentially life-threatening domestic abuse, according to the landmark Chicago Women's Health Risk Study (CWHRS)of the victims of intimate partner violence.

Carolyn Rebecca Block, principal author, will discuss the study at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Harold Rose Lecture at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society Museum, 2620 W. Center St., Friday, April 19 at 3 p.m.

The Harold Rose Lecture is named for a UWM distinguished professor emeritus and internationally known expert on black homicide. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Mayor Henry Maier Chair in Urban Studies Fund, the Consortium for Economic Development and the College of Letters and Science.

Block is a senior research analyst for the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. She and her 35 collaborators spent two years on the study, involving nearly 500 women who'd been abused, a 200-member control group, and 87 murder victims who'd been killed in incidents involving intimate partner violence.

The study's goals were to identify risk factors for lethal or life-threatening injuries, and find ways to help women in danger of death or life-threatening injuries, says Block. By screening women coming through hospital emergency rooms and clinics, the researchers were able to contact women who previously had not reported abuse. They also interviewed friends and family members of murder victims, as well as reviewing police records, newspaper accounts and other information. Much of the previous research on domestic violence, says Block, focused on women who already had reported abuse or were in shelters.

In addition to identifying risk factors, the study's authors wanted to provide practical information to the people working with women who were abused by their intimate partners, says Block. "We wanted to be able to tell them the combinations of factors that suggest an abused woman is at high risk for serious injury or death."

The ongoing collaboration with community partners - police, nurses, the courts, hospitals, clinics, domestic abuse and community organizations, and women's advocates - helped the researchers design the study and develop ways of approaching the women involved, says Block.

"Women's lives are complex. Intimate relationships are sensitive and private areas of a woman's life, and there are cultural, racial/ethnic differences in how women may describe these relationships to a stranger such as an interviewer."

The in-depth study presented numerous challenges to the researchers - protecting the privacy and safety of abused women, for example, and assuring the safety of the study's interviewers as they searched out and interviewed the women and the friends and families of murder victims.

The researchers found a few key factors were linked to the fatal incidents - the partner had previously attacked the victim with a gun or a knife, or had attempted to choke or strangle the victim. The risk of fatalities also increased when either the woman, her partner or both were drunk.

However, while previous violence was an important factor, the researchers also found that a first incident of violence could be fatal or life threatening. In 15 percent of the deaths there was no previous history of violence, says Block. And in 27 percent of the nonfatal cases where women said there was only one incident, that incident was life threatening.

The researchers found the partners in these life threatening cases had a number of behaviors in common - they were controlling and often jealous, they were violent outside the home, and they used drugs or alcohol.

"People often say, `well, why don't the women leave?'" says Block. "They DO leave...women are rational even in difficult circumstances." However, especially if children are involved, leaving a relationship is difficult and often dangerous, she says. "In many cases, the abuser threatened to kill the woman and the children." In some cases, the abuser followed a woman to whatever safe place she'd gone, broke in and killed her.

The researchers looked at the potential gains and risks for women leaving an abusive relationship. The potential gain: among women who experienced less severe violence, 47 percent of those who left the relationship experienced further violence compared to 67% of those who stayed. The potential risk: In 45 percent of the homicides, the woman's attempt to leave was an immediate precipitating factor in the death. In addition, women who attempted to leave and didn't succeed faced more severe and escalating abuse.

That doesn't mean women shouldn't be encouraged to leave abusive relationships, says Block. It just means those helping them have to be aware of the risk factors and find a way that works for different situations.

The research gives agencies working with abused women some key questions to ask, says Block.

"If the woman is being physically abused by an intimate partner, you need to ask her when the last incident happened; was she choked (strangled) or threatened with a gun or knife; has the violence been increasing in frequency. If the woman is not physically abused, ask if her partner is violent outside the home; does the partner use drugs; does the partner control all or most of your daily activities, and is the partner violently and constantly jealous of you?"

At this point, Block says, there are no plans for follow-up research. "Doing the research was just so dangerous, and required so much work. We have this gold mine of data that we're still analyzing and writing about. Right now, we feel we need to focus on getting this information out. We have a responsibility to the women who talked to us. We are their voices."

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