Abstract
Background: To examine the relationship between womenu2019s status and womenu2019s experience of different violence types in their lifetime in the United States. Methods: We used 2010 National Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence Survey with the final sample size of 9,827. Six types of violence were explored in the study such as psychological aggression, coercive control and entrapment, physical violence, stalking, sexual violence, and rape. Womenu2019s status was measured by four dimensions including educational, economic, political and legal. A survey design was applied, and logistic regression analysis was performed with each violence type. Results: Womenu2019s status was associated mainly with non-physical violence types against women: women who live in the states where womenu2019s political status is high had lower odds (OR=0.80, p=0.03) of experiencing psychological aggression and coercive control and entrapment (OR= 0.81 p=0.03) and women living in the states where womenu2019s legal status is higher had lower odds (OR= 0.86 p=0.03) of experiencing psychological aggression. Also, women residing in the states with high economic status had lower odds (OR=0.81, p=0.01) of reporting sexual violence. It may indicate that non-physical violence types are more prevalent in the modern United States society.Policy and Practice Implications: Policymakers should consider prioritizing advancing womenu2019s legal rights and political participation to promote gender equality and recognize non-physical types of violence as a crime against women from the legislative perspective. Addressing non-physical types of violence will prevent the escalation to physical types of violence. This study also suggests for public health practitioners that public health strategies that neglect to address structural violence factors and power relations between genders in the society will continue to fall short in terms of addressing all the multiple factors contributing to violence against women.