Exposure to collective gender-based violence causes intimate partner violence

Wolfgang Stojetz and Tilman Brück

Journal of Development Economics, 2023, vol. 164, issue C

Abstract: Globally, one in three women experience intimate partner violence (IPV) over their lifetimes. Yet, the factors that cause men to commit IPV remain poorly understood. We propose and test a causal long-term link from past exposure to gender-based collective violence to violent behavior against an intimate partner. Combining novel survey data from Angolan war veteran families and a natural experiment, we find that exposure to sexual violence by armed groups against women makes male veterans about 30 percentage points more likely to commit physical – but not sexual – violence against a female intimate partner 18 years later (on average). Our results are not consistent with standard explanations of IPV based on group norms and intra-household bargaining. Instead, we attribute the effect to a lasting reduction in self-control skills. These findings challenge standard approaches to preventing IPV and emphasize the potential of working with men, especially after war-time episodes of collective violence.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387823000093
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:164:y:2023:i:c:s0304387823000093

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2023.103054

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Economics is currently edited by M. R. Rosenzweig

More articles in Journal of Development Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().