ABSTRACT
Worldwide, 30 percent of ever-partnered women report experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetimes and more than a third of female homicide victims are killed by an intimate partner. This chapter refers to IPV as the more encompassing term that covers violence in an intimate relationship both within and outside of a domicile. Researchers have found a consistent association between economic disadvantage and IPV prevalence at the individual and aggregate level. Attempts to disentangle associations from causality resulted in exploration of the way economic empowerment can act as a protective or risk factor for violence. Women’s higher educational attainment is generally correlated with reduced IPV prevalence. Feminist economic research on IPV, and more generally violence against women and girls, has made critical theoretical contributions and provided influential empirical evidence regarding the role of economic empowerment, employment, and asset ownership as risk or protective factors.
