Most Poor Battered Women Don't Seek Help, Study Finds

by Tim Parsons

"Almost 2 million women in America are battered by their partners each year, " explains Patricia O'Campo, PhD, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins, addint that rates are higher in poor communities.

Dr. O'Campo and her colleagues recruited women from low-income, urban neighborhoods in Baltimore. Because HIV/AIDS is a particular problem for this population, half of the women in the study were HIV-positive.

Over half (390 our of 611) women had experienced physical or sexual abuse from an intimate partner sometime after age 18. The majority of those women were African-American and almost half were infected with HIV.

Private interviews with the women revealed that most could predict an episode of violence, and a partner's drug or alcohol use was the most common warning sign.

In response to impending violence, more than half of the women said they fought back, yet almost one-fifth said they did nothing to prevent the abuse.

When asked about whether the women considered getting help for these episodes of violence, 7 out of 10 did not actively seek assistance. Of those women who did seek help, most reached out to family and friends, followed by the police. Relatively few women accessed hotlines, shelters, social services, or health care available to abused women. Almost one-third of the women said they didn't know such services were available.

"Our study shows that despite increases in the mass media messages regarding violence, many women are not being reached," says Dr. O'Campo. "In addition, some women who did try to obtain help from services reported being turned away because of a lack of available space. This could indicate that the social services out there are operating beyond their capacities."

When asked what types of services or forms of assistance the women felt would be needed to leave an abusive relationship, the most common answers were jobs, education, housing, and money.

The study, published in the April 2002 issue of Patient Education and Counseling, suggests that in order to reach this group of women, domestic violence assistance needs to be better promoted, more readily available, and comprehensive enough to include all aspects of help that low-income women may need once they leave an abusive relationship.