Alcohol-related intimate partner violence among white, black, and Hispaniccouples in the United States

Intimate partner violence (IPY) is a major public health problem in the Uni ted States. Results from a 1995 national study indicated that 23 percent of the black couples, 11.5 percent of the white couples, and 17 percent of th e Hispanic couples surveyed reported an incident of male-to-female partner violence in the 12 months preceding the survey. The rate of female-to-male partner violence was also high: 15 percent among white couples, 30 percent among black couples, and 21 percent among Hispanic couples. The higher prev alence of IPV among ethnic minorities, compared with whites, cannot be expl ained by any single factor, but seems to be related to risk factors associa ted with the individual, the type of relationship between partners, and fac tors in the environment. Alcohol plays an important part in IPV. The study found that 30 to 40 percent of the men and 27 to 34 percent of the women wh o perpetrated violence against their partners were drinking at the time of the event. Alcohol-related problems were associated with IPV among blacks a nd whites, but not among Hispanics. Alcohol's role in partner violence may be explained by people's expectations that alcohol will have a disinhibitor y effect on behavior or by alcohol's direct physiological disinhibitory eff ect. It is also possible that people consciously use alcohol as an excuse f or their violent behavior or that alcohol appears to be associated with vio lence because both heavier drinking and violence have common predictors, su ch as an impulsive personality.