ch and documentation of spousal abuse in urban communities. This is how I propose to improve upon the existing research on spousal abuse. I intend to study spousal abuse in a racially mixed rural Southwest town in Arizona to monitor and interview abused married women who visit the two local emergency rooms in Nogales.
One of the reasons that a lack of attention has been paid victims of spousal abuse in rural areas is social in dimension. Perceptions still abound about the idyllic, tranquil nature of rural living, and prevailing attitudes that violence against women doesn’t occur where men are “gentlemen” and women are “ladies”. Women who are victims of spousal abuse are often reticent to reveal such situations to health care providers voluntarily. In addition, Kirshnan argues that health care providers are inadequately trained to recognize the symptoms of spousal abuse and often fail to diagnose it (34). However, battered women who use emergency rooms makeup anywhere from 35% to 50% of the total emergency room population (Spousal 3). For these reasons we can see that recruiting sample populations from emergency room visits will be most effective in uncovering potential study participants.
Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants reside in Nogales, Arizona. Studying such minority populations along with Caucasians is important because of different demographic differences that pertain to spousal abuse. For example, retrospective studies on domestic violence do not bode well for married women or those about to marry. A report in Family and Community Health reveals that for 73% to 85% of the abused wives studied, the onset of violence did not begin until they were married to the abuser” (Kirshnan 85). In addition to this statistic, poor married couples, married couples where one or both abuse substances, and poorly educated couples all run higher risks of domestic violence. These characteristics are most often...