Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Risk of Death or Life-Threatening Injury for Women with Children Not Sired by the Abuser

  • Published:
Human Nature Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Women who are abused by their male intimate partners incur many costs, ranging in severity from fleeting physical pain to death. Previous research has linked the presence of children sired by a woman’s previous partner to increased risk of woman abuse and to increased risk of femicide. The current research extends this work by securing data from samples of 111 unabused women, 111 less severely abused women, 128 more severely abused women, and 26 victims of intimate partner femicide from the Chicago Women’s Health Risk Study to document an ordinal trend in the risk of experiencing more severe forms of violence for women who have children in the household sired by a previous partner. The discussion addresses two potential explanations for this trend and highlights directions for future research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson, K. G. (2000). The life histories of American stepfathers in evolutionary perspective. Human Nature, 11, 307–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Block, C. R. (2000a). Chicago Women’s Health Risk Study, 1995–1998 [Computer file]. ICPSR version. Chicago: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority [producer]. Ann Arbor: Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor].

    Google Scholar 

  • Block, C. R. (2000b). Chicago Women’s Health Risk Study: Risk of serious injury or death in intimate violence: A collaborative research project. Washington, DC: United States Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, NCJ 184511.

    Google Scholar 

  • Block, C. R. (2000c). Chicago Women’s Health Risk Study, 1995–1998: ICPSR 3002, Data collection instruments. Ann Arbor: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, V. E., & Paulsen, D. J. (1999). A comparison of U.S. and Canadian findings on uxoricide risk for women with children sired by previous partners. Homicide Studies, 3, 317–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brownridge, D. A. (2004). Male partner violence against women in stepfamilies: an analysis of risk and explanations in the Canadian milieu. Violence and Victims, 19, 17–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, J. C. (2002). Health consequences of intimate partner violence. Lancet, 359, 1331–1336.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, J. C., Webster, D., Koziol-McLain, J., et al. (2003). Risk factors for femicide in abusive relationships: results from a multisite case control study. American Journal of Public Health, 93, 1089–1097.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coker, A. L., Smith, P. H., McKeown, R. E., & King, M. J. (2000). Frequency and correlates of intimate partner violence by type: physical, sexual, and psychological battering. American Journal of Public Health, 90, 553–559.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1988). Homicide. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1996). Evolutionary psychology and marital conflict: The relevance of stepchildren. In D. M. Buss & N. Malamuth (Eds.), Sex, power, conflict: Feminist and evolutionary perspectives (pp. 9–28). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, M., Singh, L. S., & Wilson, M. (1993). Children fathered by previous partners: a risk factor for violence against women. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 84, 209–210.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, M., Wiseman, K. A., & Wilson, M. I. (1997). Women with children sired by previous partners incur excess risk of uxoricide. Homicide Studies, 1, 61–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emlen, S. T. (1997). The evolutionary study of human family systems. Social Science Information, 36, 563–589.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Figueredo, A. J., & McCloskey, L. A. (1993). Sex, money, and paternity: the evolution of domestic violence. Ethology and Sociobiology, 14, 353–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia-Moreno, C., Jansen, H. A. F. M., Ellsberg, M., Heise, L., & Watts, C. H. (2006). Prevalence of intimate partner violence: findings from the WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence. Lancet, 368, 1260–1269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goetz, A. T., Shackelford, T. K., Romero, G. A., Kaighobadi, F., & Miner, E. J. (2008). Punishment, proprietariness, and paternity: men’s violence against women from an evolutionary perspective. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 13, 481–489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heise, L. L., Raikes, A., Watts, C. H., & Zwi, A. B. (1994). Violence against women: a neglected public health issue in less developed countries. Social Science & Medicine, 39, 1165–1179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mantel, N. (1963). Chi-square tests with one degree of freedom: extensions of the Mantel-Haenszel procedure. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 58, 690–700.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mantel, N., & Haenszel, W. (1959). Statistical aspects of the analysis of data from retrospective studies of disease. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 22, 719–748.

    Google Scholar 

  • Straus, M. A. (1979). Measuring intrafamily conflict and violence: the conflict tactics (CT) scales. Journal of Marriage and Family, 41, 75–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vest, J. R., Catlin, T. K., Chen, J. J., & Brownson, R. C. (2002). Multistate analysis of factor associated with intimate partner violence. American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 22, 156–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, M., & Daly, M. (1996). Male sexual proprietariness and violence against women. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 5, 2–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emily J. Miner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Miner, E.J., Shackelford, T.K., Block, C.R. et al. Risk of Death or Life-Threatening Injury for Women with Children Not Sired by the Abuser. Hum Nat 23, 89–97 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-012-9129-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-012-9129-9

Keywords

Navigation