Citation

O'Campo PJ, Burke J, Peak GL, McDonnell KA, Gielen AC. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2005; 59(7): 603-608.

Affiliation

Centre for Research on Inner City Health, St Michael’s Hospital, 30 Bond Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5B 1W8. pat.ocampo@utoronto.ca.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/jech.2004.027227

PMID

15965146

PMCID

PMC1757065

Abstract

While neighbourhood influences on the risk of intimate partner violence have been reported, this body of research has suffered from a lack of strong theoretical and conceptual guidance, and few studies have examined the potential pathways from neighbourhoods to intimate partner violence. This paper used concept mapping methods with 37 women who were residents of Baltimore City to obtain cluster maps representing the important neighbourhood domains that affect the prevalence, perpetration, severity, and cessation of intimate partner violence. Domains important for intimate partner severity and perpetration differed from those important for cessation of intimate partner violence. Finally, diagrams of the domains, drawn by the concept mapping participants, illustrated the pathways by which neighbourhood characteristics potentially influence intimate partner violence severity, perpetration, and cessation. These results can be used to generate testable hypotheses regarding neighbourhood influences on intimate partner violence in future quantitative research and to inform the design of public health intimate partner violence programmes.