Neighborhoods can be sexist too: Hostile sexism and risk of intimate partner violence across city neighborhoods

Abstract

Hostile sexism reflects prejudices and hostile attitudes toward women that may justify and facilitate intimate partner violence (IPV). The present study aimed to measure and map hostile sexism attitudes at the neighborhood level, and analyzed whether neighborhood-level hostile sexism was associated with the risk of IPV across city neighborhoods (Valencia, Spain). We used geocoded data on IPV cases (N = 2,060) aggregated at the census block group level (N = 552). Informed by a social disorganization theoretical framework, neighborhood-level covariates included administrative data on sociodemographic and contextual characteristics (i.e., income, immigrant concentration, residential instability, and social disorder and crime), and survey data on hostile sexism (N = 8,165). We conducted a small-area ecological study using Bayesian spatial modeling and disease mapping methods. Results showed the spatial clustering of neighborhood-level hostile sexism (i.e., these attitudes were not distributed equally across neighborhoods, but showed a distinctive geographical pattern), and that neighborhoods with higher levels of hostile sexism had higher relative risks of IPV, once other neighborhood-level characteristics were accounted for. This study showed that the unequal distribution of neighborhood-level hostile sexism compounded with other neighborhood characteristics (i.e., low income, high immigrant concentration, and high levels of social disorder and criminality) to explain important spatial inequalities in IPV risk across city neighborhoods. Neighborhood-level prevention efforts should consider including strategies to reduce gender biased social norms, prejudices, and hostile attitudes toward women that create a social climate that helps to justify, tolerate, and facilitate IPV.