A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Neighborhood Domestic Violence Resources and Intimate Partner Homicide

This concurrent triangulation mixed-methods study involves a neighborhood analysis of the relationship between domestic violence resources and intimate partner homicide (IPH) trajectories. As part of the mixed-methods study, the quantitative method identifies neighborhood-level pooled and sex-specific IPH trajectory groups; and examines how domestic violence resources, declining domesticity, female economic status relative to male economic status, and social disorganization affect membership in the identified trajectories. Results reveal multiple distinct trajectories of varying shapes and that most domestic violence resources are associated with decreased likelihood of higher trajectory group membership. The qualitative study fills methodological gaps present in the quantitative study. Specifically, the quantitative study examines how the availability of domestic violence resources influence neighborhood IPH trajectories, while the qualitative study explores whether women are actually accessing those resources and how they make decisions to seek assistance. Results reveal that severely abused women’s help-seeking decisions take shape within the context of abuse (i.e., patterns of abuse and individual life circumstances) they are experiencing and in relation to personal perceptions of homicide risk. The qualitative study demonstrates that severely abused women experience unique patterns of help-seeking where they travel along a continuum of delaying and hastening outreach. Collectively, the qualitative findings help to deconstruct women’s complex help-seeking contemplation processes and resultant help-seeking decisions through which the decreased neighborhood homicide risk outcomes identified in the quantitative study are realized.