Community Social Norms As Social Determinants of Violence Against Women

Public toilets in the Batu animal museum, East Java, Indonesia. Printed with permission of Corbis.

The recent article by Peterman et al. on sexual violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) found that “reports of sexual violence were largely independent of individual-level background factors.”^1(p1060) This article, however, documents significant regional patterning in rates of intimate partner sexual violence, suggesting that community-level characteristics may, in some settings, better explain a woman's risk of violence victimization than do individual-level factors. The results underscore the need for further research on the upstream social determinants of violence against women, especially as pertaining to intimate partner violence (IPV). Multilevel modeling is an underutilized tool that can be useful in simultaneously examining individual-level as well as community-level predictors.

Studies that used multilevel analysis found significant contextual determinants of IPV, including community-level literacy² and neighborhood poverty.³ In our view, one important community-level variable not adequately examined is the social norms around spousal violence. Peterman et al. call for policies and programs to “eliminate the acceptance of and impunity surrounding sexual violence.”^1(p1066) We support this call and believe that research can guide policymakers by empirically showing how such norms negatively impact the health of women and communities.

To our knowledge, only two studies—both using data from India^4,5—have shown an association between social norms around spousal violence and a woman's increased risk of IPV. Further studies are needed to examine whether this holds true in other countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East where spousal violence is largely accepted.^6–8 As Peterman et al.¹ rightfully note, the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) is a useful data set for research on IPV globally. Although not included in the DRC survey, a large number of DHS country surveys include questions on women's status and specifically on whether a husband is justified in beating his wife in various scenarios.

An aggregate social norms variable can easily be created from women's and men's responses to this question and used to examine a broad range of outcomes. The two articles on IPV in India used either men's or women's attitudes as a proxy for social norms. Because in many countries the DHS surveys include responses from both women and men, a weighted average may better reflect community beliefs. We hope future studies on IPV using DHS data will employ multilevel methods and consider including an indicator for social norms around spousal violence to fill this gap in the literature.