Latent Class Analysis of IPV Among Black Women Mandated to Community Supervision Programs, Who Use Drugs

Background and Purpose: Intimate partner violence (IPV) disproportionately affects Black women who use drugs and Black women mandated to community supervision programs (CSPs) via probation, parole, and “alternative-to-incarceration” programs. Further adding to the risk of IPV is bisexual identity or experience of being a woman who has sex with women and men (WSWM). Further, drug and alcohol use, police sexual misconduct, and childhood physical and sexual abuse each are associated with a higher risk of IPV. Despite the siloed understandings of the experience of IPV among Black women and the intersections with multiple minoritized statuses, there remains a critical need for research that advances our understanding of patterns of IPV among Black WSWM, who use drugs and are mandated to CSPs. This study identifies patterns of IPV perpetrated by male partners among a sample of Black women, mandated to CSPs, who use drugs.

Methods: Data for this study come from baseline survey data of a randomized control trial (2015-2019) that evaluation the effectiveness of an HIV/STI intervention for Black women who use drugs mandated to community supervision programs (CSPs). CSP staff and research assistants (RAs) recruited 352 women at CSPs across NYC through flyers, direct invitation, and word-of-mouth referrals from other participants. The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2) was used to measure lifetime psychological, physical, injurious, and sexual IPV and were used as indicators in a latent class analysis (LCA). LCA is a technique that can be used to identify a group of participants with shared characteristics that does not assume independence among variables.

Results: Approximately 41% (n=144) of the sample were WSWM, 89% of which experienced lifetime IPV. WSWM experienced significantly higher rates of all types of IPV (e.g., physical, injurious, sexual, and psychological IPV), including multiple IPV experiences. LCA revealed that a two-class solution was best suited for the data. Two thirds of the sample were members of Class 2, “High Psychological & Physical IPV/Moderate Injurious & Sexual IPV” who had an overall moderate to high probability of experiencing each type of IPV. WSWM, any lifetime illicit drug use, childhood physical or sexual abuse, and lifetime experience of police sexual misconduct were associated with higher odds of membership to Class 2, compared to membership to Class 1 (Low overall IPV).

Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that experiencing multiple, marginalized identities is associated with more types of IPV and more severe patterns of IPV. This signals the need for more inclusive IPV services that can engage Black WSWM in the criminal-legal system who use drugs. Staff in criminal-legal and IPV settings should receive ongoing training and technical assistance to recognize and support women who greater severity of violence. Routine screenings should be implemented in probation and other criminal-legal settings that measure IPV by both male and female partners, along with a broader range of IPV tactics related to multiple, minoritized identities. Finally, future research into classes of violence among this population should include mutual, or bi-directional violence, violence perpetrated by female partners, as well as more comprehensive IPV measures.