Explaining the recent decline in domestic violence

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the incidence of domestic violence decreased during the 1990s. Understanding the causes of this decline could of,fer important insight into designing effective policies to continue this trend. This article uses the Area-Identified National Crime Victimization Sun-a (NCVS), the same data used to generate the DOJ's national estimates, emerge l with county-level variables, to examine the determinants of women reporting abuse. The results indicate that there are three important factors that likely contribute to the decline.(1) the increased provision of legal services for victims of intimate partner abuse, (2) improvements in womens economic status. and (3) demographic trends, most notably the aging of the population.