African-American and Caucasian women living and surviving under domestic violence: The intersections of race, class, gender, and racism

The purpose of this study was to investigate if “race matters” in battered women's reported experiences with abuse, including responses from their family, friends, and the police. The sample of the data used for this secondary data analysis consisted of battered women who took part in anonymous telephone interviews conducted by the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse (MINCAVA) from 1998 to 1999. Several statistical relationships were investigated by this study, including the relationship between race and social class; the relationship between race and reported abuse; the relationship between social class and reported abuse; and finally the abused women's experience with formal and informal networks, by race and class. Through unique bivariate and multivariate analyses (controlling for race), original differences by race were found to be more associated with demographic characteristics, including socio-economic status, age, and relationship to the abuser. The intersections of race, social class, gender, and racism, influenced by the ecological perspective and Black feminist theories, informed this study's analyses and are also included in the findings' implications for practice, policy, and research. The study's conceptual framework of identifying risk and protective factors imbedded in the intersections of race, class, gender and racism is guided by the Haddon Matrix of domestic violence prevention.