Rural and Urban Domestic Violence in Vermont, 2015-2019

By Robin Joy and Megan Novak

It has been a long-time interest in both the victim advocate community and researchers to conduct a study to determine if individuals living in the rural areas of Vermont experience greater severity of injuries. Isolation in the rural areas creates a challenging barrier for a number of reasons: fewer people are around to witness behaviors, victims are removed from services, higher rates of substance abuse and unemployment, issues with transportation, and long distances to domestic violence and health-related services. According to the Vermont Domestic Violence Homicide Fatality Review Committee, at least half of Vermont’s homicides have been domestic violence-related almost every year since 1994 (Commission, 2020) (Vermont Fatality Review Commission, 2018). Research external to Vermont suggests that the rural nature of the state may be contributing to the homicide rate as well as to the level of injury sustained in intimate partner assaults. A study of services provided to victims in Illinois found that rural victims were more likely to experience sexual assault than urban victims. Logan et. al. (2003 & 2005), found that rural victims of domestic violence are likely to be abused earlier in a relationship and be abused more often than urban victims. Factors that contribute to more injurious intimate partner violence (IPV) in rural areas include isolation from other houses, few employment/housing opportunities, and distance from services and supports (Edwards, 2015). These issues are present in the rural state of Vermont with a longstanding affordable housing crisis, lack of accessible public transportation and services outside of larger population centers, and limited hospital options. Working with stakeholders, this study was designed to understand the impact that Vermont’s rural nature may have on the severity of domestic violence in Vermont. The primary research question proposed for this project was: Do victims of domestic violence in the rural areas of Vermont experience more serious injuries than victims in urban and suburban areas? Breaking this down the project proposed to answer: • Do intimate partner assaults result in more serious injuries in areas where there is no local police coverage versus those areas that have a local police force?

Do Emergency Department visits coded with IDC codes for Domestic Violence1 indicate that there is a difference in the severity of injuries of patients from rural areas versus urban areas? • What distance barriers are present for victims of intimate partner violence in accessing services such as shelter, counseling, and economic services? This study uses various data sources to categorize the injuries sustained by victims by their location and evaluates the data sources available to measure the prevalence of serious injuries in rural areas. Part 1 maps out the resources available to domestic violence victims. Part 2 analyzes the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data to understand crimes of IPV reported to the police. Part 3 analyzes emergency room discharge data for domestic violence cases. 

Montepilier, VT: Crime Research Group, 2021. 19p.