Epidemiology of Injuries
among Women after Physical Assaults: The Role of Self-protective Behaviors
Why is this study important?
More than 5,000 women die each year and approximately 1 million suffer
from injuries as a result of physical assault. Recent epidemiological
studies have suggested that when a woman defends herself during an assault,
she increases her risk of injury, but it is unclear why more injuries
occur when female assault victims try to defend themselves. The data do
not distinguish whether the victim initiated self-protective behaviors
before, during or after the assault began.
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Reviewed by
Priscilla Schulz, LCSW
from an article of the same title by:
Martie P. Thompson, Thomas R. Simon, Linda E. Saltzman, and James
A. Mercy, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Published: American Journal of Epidemiology,
V. 150 (3), 235-244, 1999
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It can be argued that the women
surveyed in these studies were already injured when they began to fight
back, and that this is just as likely as the scenario that fighting the
perpetrator incited him to injure them. While not a replacement for primary
prevention of violence against women, understanding the relationship between
self-defense and injury could inform secondary prevention efforts. The present study uses data from the National
Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) 1992-1995 in which the timing of victims'
self-defense behavior is noted.
What is the purpose of this study?
The purpose of this study was to:
 Explore
whether female victims' use of self-protective behaviors at different
times (before, during, or after the assault had begun) affected risk
of injury
Examine
female victims' perceptions concerning how their efforts to defend
themselves affected the outcome of the assault
Explore
how the victim's relationship to the offender affected the outcome
of the assault when the victim tried to defend herself.
The study looked at 3,206 incidents between 1992 and 1995 in which females
12 years and older were victimized. The study included only physical assaults
in which a woman was assaulted by a lone, male perpetrator. The study
did not include robberies or sexual assaults.
What did the study find?
The study conducted a number of multivariable analyses permitting researchers
to conclude that each of the listed findings were unique predictors of
injury reduction.
Women who
try to protect themselves from an assailant before or during and attack
are less likely to be injured from the assault than those who did not
try to protect themselves or only did so after already being injured
by the assailant. This result is further bolstered by the finding that
75% of women who tried to protect themselves before or during the assault
perceived their efforts as helping the situation. However compelling
these results are, researchers urge caution in making recommendations
from them at this time.
Victims of
intimate partner violence were at greater risk of injury than were victims
of non-intimate partner violence.
Women with
less than a high school education were at increased risk of sustaining
an injury after a physical assault.
Women assaulted
by male assailants with firearms were significantly less likely to be
injured compared with those assaulted by assailants without a gun.
When injury
severity was classified as minor versus serious, self-protective behaviors
significantly reduced minor injury. Self-protective behaviors also markedly
reduced the risk of serious injury though this was not a significant
reduction.
What are the study's limitations?
The study
did not examine how different types of self-protective behaviors affected
injury outcomes. That is, self-protection includes forceful efforts
(e.g., fighting back) as well as non-forceful efforts (e.g., pleading).
Other studies have found that the type of self-protective behavior results
in significantly different outcomes.
Information
about the context of the assaults was not available so it is unknown,
for example, whether a woman had an opportunity to try to defend herself
or if the assault happened too suddenly for her to respond.
There was
no data available on assaults resulting in death to explore victims'
behaviors during those attacks.
The study's
results (correlative) do not suggest that self-protective behaviors
during a physical assault prevent injury. For example, victims' use
of self-protective behaviors may just be more likely in less dangerous
situations.
It is unknown
whether this study's results would be found in an examination of victims'
self-protective behaviors in other kinds of violent crimes such as rape
and robberies.
Reviewed by Priscilla Schulz, September 1999
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