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The Politics of Private Violence: How Intimate Partner Violence Victimization Influences Political Attitudes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Helen Rabello Kras Open the ORCID record for Helen Rabello Kras [Opens in a new window]
Helen Rabello Kras*
Affiliation:
Helen Rabello Kras is an assistant professor in the Department of History, Politics, and Political Economy at Regis University, Denver, Colorado, USA. hrabellokras@regis.edu
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Abstract

This study examines the relationship between personal experience with intimate partner violence (IPV) and political attitudes. I argue that by adopting salient legislation on violence against women, the state enables survivors to evaluate government performance on the basis of their ability to access resources for victims. As such, when survivors are unable to reach specialized public services, they might downgrade their evaluations of government performance. Focusing on Brazil and using survey data and qualitative interviews, this study finds that IPV survivors who have not used specialized services hold more negative views of government performance compared to nonvictims. Further analysis, including a series of placebo tests, lends additional support to the main results. This study has an intersectional component, as it also examines the relationship between race and access to services. These findings have implications for victims’ democratic rights and access to justice.

Keywords

Intimate partner violencepublic opinionBrazilpublic policygender-based violencerace
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 64 , Special Issue 4: Futurity Beyond the State: Illegal Markets and Imagined Futures in Latin America , November 2022 , pp. 119 - 145
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the University of Miami

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