Ethnoracial Group Variation in Gender-Based Violence in the Dominican Republic: The Roles of Childhood and Community Violence Exposure in Risk of Physical Violence

Barbara Zsembik , University of Florida
Julia Arroyo, University of Florida
Chuck Peek, University of Florida

Violence against women has risen in the Dominican Republic (DR), especially among Haitian Dominican women in the bateyes. Immigrants from Haiti leave a country with high levels of interpersonal and community violence, including high levels of violence against children and violence against women. Consequences of violence against children and normative community violence include the intergenerational transmission of family violence cultures. Data for this research are drawn from both the country and bateyes 2013 DHS surveys. We evaluate whether level of severity of physical violence in the past 12 months varies by ethnoracial group, and whether it is grounded in subgroup distributions of violence exposure and socioeconomic characteristics. We observe significantly higher odds of severe physical violence among Haitian immigrants, but the higher odds of physical violence among Haitian Dominicans is due to their greater exposure to risks of violence such as SES and childhood violence exposure.

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 Presented in Session 9. Marriage, Family, Households, & Unions; Gender, Race, & Ethnicity