Multivariate analyses of the global acceptability rates of male intimate partner violence (IPV) against women based on World Values Survey data

Abstract

Major international organizations like UN Women and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that nowadays, more than one-third of all women in the world suffer male intimate partner violence (IPV) at some point in their lives and that eliminating the societal acceptancy of that violence is a major element in combatting it. While there is consensus that IPV has disastrous public health consequences, so far, little is known about the drivers of IPV acceptability rates. This article therefore analyzes available global opinion data from the World Values Survey (WVS) project in 72 countries of the world, representing some four-fifths of the global population. Existing IPV data published prior to this study already suggested that the highest global incidence of IPV is to be found in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Andean Latin America. Neoliberal political economy in the tradition of Hayek maintained for a long time that the disrespect of property rights and traditional family values can have disastrous social and economic effects. Our study renders support for this theory: On the basis of a variety of statistical analyses, including a factor analysis of 45 key items from the WVS data, we conclude that apart from attitudes on gender equality, the disrespect of property rights and traditional family values, analyzed by Hayek, emerge as the major drivers of high acceptability rates of IPV. Mali, Serbia, Montenegro, Zambia, Burkina Faso, India, the Philippines, Rwanda, Egypt, and Algeria are on top of this list of global rates of IPV acceptability.

Keywords: comparative study; economics of gender; factor analysis; index numbers; political economy.