Urban African American & Hispanic Mens Perpetration of Multiple Forms of Violence

Decker, Michele

Abstract

Importance: Despite extensive evidence of increased rates of violence among African American and Hispanic men, information specific to these communities for describing the etiology of sexual assault (SA), intimate partner violence (IPV), peer violence (PV) are often lacking in etiological research concerning these outcomes. Identification of potentially modifiable protective factors across multiple levels of the socio-ecological model is critical to enhance our ability to design effective violence prevention programs tailored to these high-risk groups. ? ? Objectives: To address this unmet need, the current study seeks to inform risk and protective factors across the individual, family / peer and community levels of socio-ecological model specific to 1) African American and 2) Hispanic men concerning perpetration of 1) SA, 2) IPV and 3) PV. ? ? Design: The proposed study will employ secondary data analysis of a community-based, cross-sectional dataset collected from a large urban sample of men ages 18-35 largely comprised of two minority groups, specifically African American (11=1350) and Latino (n=8oo) men. ? ? Setting and Participants: Participants were recruited at three urban community health centers for a study designed to assess the etiology of men's IPV perpetration across a diverse population, thus the data offer tremendous depth concerning risk and protective factors of interest across multiple levels of the socio-ecological model. The proposed analyses, stratified by race / ethnicity and informing multiple forms of violence perpetration, were beyond the scope of the original study however this rich dataset is optimal for this purpose. Analyses of these community-based data will inform the influences of individual, family/relationship, and community risk and protective factors on the past-year perpetration of SA, IPV, and PV, for these two high risk groups. ? ? ?