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Reports

Domestic violence in the Dominican Republic: Looking for its roots

Dominican Association for the Well Being of Family (PROFAMILIA)
Executive Report
Francisco I. Cáceres Ureña, Ph.D.
Lic. Germania Estévez Then

With the support of the United States Agency for International Development
Santo Domingo November 2004

Conclusions

Violence against women is a phenomenon that has recently been covered on a large scale by the mass media. Nevertheless, there is a contrast between these recent media references and the fact that this problem has existed for a long time. Indeed, violence against women can be traced back to the origins of society while it has been recognized as a social and health problem only recently.

Information from ENDESA-2002, although some of its limitations may contain omissions, underscores the seriousness of the problem in the Dominican Republic. According to this source, 24% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 years old have been victims of physical aggression after having turned 15.  This risk of aggression can be as high as 40% in the cases of separated or divorced women and 33% in the case of domestic service workers.  Generally these aggressions are committed by the husband or ex-husband (63%) and to a lesser degree by the mother (14%), the father (10%) or another family member (9%).

When referring to violence perpetrated by the husband or ex-husband, 22% of the women who currently have or had a husband have been physically mistreated by their partner. That figure rises one-third in the case of domestic workers and women whose marriage ended in divorce or separation.  In terms of emotional abuse, the proportion of women mistreated by their partners or ex-partners reaches as high as 67% when referring to at least one form of control over the woman’s life; 23% when referring to three areas of her life and 18% when threats and/or humiliation are utilized as indicators. In the case of emotional abuse when based on at least one form of control, these figures can reach as high as 80% among domestic service workers, teenagers and divorced or separated women.  When emotional abuse is measured according to the second indicator, the figures can affect a full third of women in these three categories. When the violence is defined as having suffered humiliation or threats, the figure can rise to a quarter of domestic service workers and divorced or separated women.

The results derived from a multivariable analysis in which the 14 characteristics taken into account in the domestic violence study are analyzed jointly, demonstrate that the risk of a woman being abused by her husband or ex-husband is a phenomenon with multiple origins. The chance that a woman will be physically abused depends on 11 of these factors while emotional abuse is also a function of 11 factors.

The results of this multivariable analysis demonstrates that, regardless of the circumstances in a woman’s life, the fact that she is physically abused by her partner or ex-partner depends on the geographic context of where she lives (region and residential zone) and six personal characteristics: occupation, education, access to information, religion, age and marital status and three characteristics that pertain to the husband or ex-husband.  Meanwhile, the risk of falling victim to emotional abuse, in addition to geographic location (region and residential zone), depends on five individual characteristics:  family economic status, occupation, religion, age and marital status.  Four characteristics of the partner or ex-partner come into play: occupation, education, age and alcohol consumption.

If the effects of the different variables are controlled, women most likely to become victims of physical abuse are those living in the National District and the province of Santo Domingo, the Northeast and Enriquillo provinces followed by women in the North Central, Eastern, El Valle and Cibao Central regions; city dwellers; service, manual and domestic workers; women with less access to information; members of religions other than Catholic; young women between 20-34; separated or divorced women followed by common law marriages or consensual unions; wives and ex-wives of trade and manual laborers, men with less than six years of formal education and men who consume alcohol.

When the net contribution of each variable is considered, women with higher risk of emotional abuse are the following: those who live in the National District and the province of Santo Domingo, the Northeast and Enriquillo provinces followed by women in the North Central, Eastern, El Valle and Cibao Central regions; city dwellers ; members of mid-size and middle level family groups; domestic service workers;  practitioners of religions other than Catholic; young women and teenagers; separated or divorced women followed in order of importance by women in common law marriages or consensual unions; wives and ex-wives of trade and manual laborers, men with low level education, older men and men who drink alcohol.

According to observation of other aspects linked to social integration, a lower tendency for domestic violence was theorized among young married women. This was based on their more modernized generational and positive attitudes about life and the various issues one faces.  The results of this multivariable analysis, nevertheless, showed that incidences of violent domestic abuse are more frequent among women between the ages of 20 and 34. When referring to emotional abuse, this same group appears to be the most likely to suffer at the hands of a partner or former partner. Even more disturbing is that teenagers suffer the risks of emotional abuse at levels similar to their adult counterparts.  By contrast, regardless of the type of abuse, women between 45 and 49 are less likely to be abused.

This last figure is notable for two reasons. First, it possible that older women tend not to recognize violent incidents perpetrated against them by their partners, that they forget about them or that they conceal them. Second, it is possible that there is a change in male behavior that would normally translate into domestic violence. If this is the case, younger women have partners from an environment more similar to her own, wherein the young men would have attitudes that may be more prone to violence against women.

Judging by the male perception of women, the last of the two hypotheses posed in the previous paragraph seems to be the most plausible. If this perception is focused on the point of view of the woman’s role, as seen by the man, in family decision-making, younger men (between 15 and 34) generally believe that the man has the last word on all important domestic decisions including the issues concerning the woman herself. When men’s attitudes of women’s rights are evaluated, the younger man generally holds more old-fashioned positions.    

When analyzing women’s perceptions of their rights, it was revealed that not only are younger men more prone to violence against their partners but that the younger women themselves are more permissive in the face of potential aggressive behavior on the part of their partners. In addition, geographic, socio-economic and demographic groups where men are more prone to be violent toward their partners are those in which women present a weaker perception of their own rights. As a result, the subpopulations characterized by higher levels of domestic violence are those where the lowest levels of perception of women’s rights and women’s role converge and where this occurs from the men’s as well as the women’s point of view.

Given that violence is seen as a determining factor in reproductive health, one must consider situations with risky tendencies toward domestic violence that can affect the reproductive health of women. These situations can occur in all geographical, socio-economic, cultural and demographic areas. This was verified through multivariable analysis that showed that, regardless of the woman’s situation, those who have not suffered physical abuse at the hands of their partners tended to use condoms and other birth control methods more often than women who had been abused. At the same time, emotional abuse does not seem to exercise any type of influence over the use of condoms. This does, however, affect the use of other modern birth control methods.

In a relationship similar to this one where modern birth control is used, violent domestic abuse has an elevated effect on the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Isolating the effect of the various characteristics of the woman and her husband, those who have suffered abuse are twice as likely to contract an STD. To a greater degree, the same situation can be seen in the case of emotional abuse. In the case of women, regardless of their conditions and environment, who have not suffered emotional abuse, have less tendency to contract an STD as opposed to women who have suffered mistreatment. The latter have more than double the possibility.

Various scenarios drawn from different stages of analysis done on this topic demonstrate the magnitude, characteristics and implications of domestic violence in the Dominican Republic. Nevertheless, studies underscore the importance of gathering and producing detailed information. Violence should be studied in a specific way.  On the one hand, the data should overcome the fact that the collection of the information on this subject is derived from its inclusion in surveys for other reasons and therefore there is no chance of deepening or gathering more information on the subject. On the other hand, one must overcome the thematic focus once the theme and the surveys are merged.

The ecological framework is recognized as important in the explanation of violence against women. Nevertheless, this is not taken into account at the moment when questions are formulated through which violence is investigated. It is accepted that the behavior that translates into violent incidents are products of historical events involving several factors: society, community, family and individual. However, in studying this phenomenon the individual is viewed from a transversal perspective in a particular time frame hence removed from his/her family, community and social context.

Producing knowledge and understanding with the idea of reversing the levels of male violence against their partners and, therefore, liberating women, family and society from the consequences of this problem necessarily implies overcoming these limitations. Only through a thorough understanding of the reality will it be possible to design mechanisms and find the tools needed to make these changes.