Rural, urban influenced, and urban differences among domestic violence arrestees

The purpose of this article was to examine a statewide random sample of rural, urban influenced, and urban males arrested for perpetrating domestic violence against an intimate partner on demographic, criminal justice history, substance use, relationship characteristics, child abuse, and treatment exposure factors. The study used a 9% random sample of 1,112 pretrial interview records on males arrested for domestic violence in 1997 in Kentucky. The study examined perpetrators in three geographical areas to examine regional differences. Results indicated that community context is critical in understanding domestic violence. In general, rural males appear to present more significant problems given their lower employment rates, lower educational attainments, greater use of psychoactive medication, and higher arrest rates. Alcohol use was significantly prevalent across all three groups, but combined alcohol and nerve pill drug use was more prevalent among rural domestic violence arrestees. Implications are discussed.