Examining an Extension of Johnson's Hypothesis: Is Male Perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence More Underreported than Female Violence?

• NCJ Number: 229807
• Author(s): Clifton R. Emery
• Date Published: February 2010
• Length: 9 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Award: Consequences of Childhood Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence

Annotation

This paper examines to what extent rates of intimate partner violence are underestimated and whether the amount of under-reporting of male intimate partner violence is greater than the under-reporting of female intimate partner violence.

Abstract

This paper examines two hypotheses about under-reporting in intimate partner violence data. The first hypothesis holds that significant amounts of under-reporting of intimate partner violence occur due to stigma. The second examines the empirical evidence behind Johnson's (Journal of Marriage and the Family 57:238-294, 1995) contention that controversial findings of equal rates of intimate partner violence perpetration among men and women occur through a combination of heterogeneity in type of intimate partner violence and missing data. E.M. and Data Augmentation are used to correct for item non-response in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Strong support is found for general under-reporting; weak support is found for greater under-reporting of male violence. Tables, figures, and references (Published Abstract)