Intimate partner assault and structural-level correlates of crime: exploring the relationship between contextual factors and intimate partner violence

Drawing from social disorganization theory, the relationship between correlates of social disorganization theory and intimate partner aggravated assaults are explored. Specifically, the current study presents a descriptive picture of intimate partner violence from a police perspective, and investigates the relationship between structural-level factors and the criminal offense intimate partner aggravated assault. A descriptive analysis of intimate partner assaults and multiple negative binomial regression models are estimated using the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the American Community Survey (ACS) to explore the relationship between structural factors and intimate partner violence. The primary sample includes 7290 intimate partner aggravated assaults across 227 counties in two states, Tennessee and Virginia. Concentrated disadvantage, immigrant concentration, and urbanity were all significantly associated with intimate partner assaults in the expected directions. The results indicated that the more social disorganization within a given county, the higher the likelihood of intimate partner assaults. The findings provide evidence that structural-level factors associated with social disorganization theory contribute to increased intimate partner assaults. The findings suggest that specific correlates of social disorganization are positively associated with intimate partner assaults, and lend support for the theory of social disorganization in explaining intimate partner violence.