More on violence against women

Sister Y rightly objected in the comments (and even provided some data) to an old post regarding the variables I used in the GSS to find the rates of violence used against celibate or lesbian women. I wasn’t very proficient at use of the GSS web-tool at the time. Fortunately Jason Malloy explained how to find just what I was looking for in comments to a somewhat recent GNXP post. Razib has been encouraging bloggers to make more use of the GSS, so I’ve given it another shot.

Sorry about the gaps. Just copying the source from GSS didn’t work this time, so I’ve been mucking about combining it with the html from my last “violence against women” post. This is as polished as I’m willing to get it at the moment.

Variable LAW2 : A PERSONAL ASSAULT
PreQuestion Text
1575. Now, I’m going to ask you about various events and conditions that happen to people. I’m interested in those that happened to you during the last 12 months, that is since (CURRENT MONTH), 2003. As I ask you about the specific events, please think carefully, so I can record things accurately.

F. Next, did any of the following criminal or legal events occur to you since (CURRENT MONTH), 2003…
Literal Question
2. A personal assault (e.g. being beaten up, hit, or attacked with a weapon).

SDA 3.2: TablesGeneral Social Surveys, 1972-2006 [Cumulative File]

Apr 19, 2008 (Sat 12:07 PM PDT)

Variables
Role	Name	Label	Range	MD	Dataset
Row	LAW2	A PERSONAL ASSULT	1-2	0,8,9	1
Column	SEXSEX5	SEX OF SEX PARTNERS LAST FIVE YEARS	1-3	0,8,9	1
Weight	WTSSALL	WEIGHT VARIABLE	.4297-6.4287		1
Filter	SEX(2)	RESPONDENTS SEX(=FEMALE)	1-2	0	1

Frequency Distribution
Cells contain: -Column percent -Weighted N		SEXSEX5
Cells contain: -Column percent -Weighted N		1 EXCLUSIVELY MALE	2 BOTH MALE AND FEMALE	3 EXCLUSIVELY FEMALE	ROW TOTAL
LAW2	1: YES	2.1 18	13.4 1	.0 0	2.2 19
	2: NO	97.9 828	86.6 6	100.0 5	97.8 839
	COL TOTAL	100.0 846	100.0 7	100.0 5	100.0 858

Allocation of cases (unweighted)
Valid cases	854
Cases excluded by filter or weight	22,439
Cases with invalid codes on row or column variable	27,727
Total cases	51,020

Datasets
1		/7502docs/D3/GSS06
2		/7502docs/Npubvars/GSS06

This is in line with the Inductivist’s previous findings that lesbians tend to have their shit together while bisexuals have issues.

Chip Smith Says:

December 17, 2008 at 10:53 am

I think Inductivist has a point about lesbians (I keep waiting for the emergence of a movement advocating same-sex marriage exclusively for female couples). However, I suspect that for women, “bisexuality” may be more of a proxy for sexual adventurism, which might be expected to track with risks, including the risk of violence. In TMWWBQ, Michael Bailey summarizes research showing that most hetero-identified women are pretty “bisexual” in the way they process sexual stimuli. If the data set were larger you might be able to get a better sense of things by controlling for number of sex partners. My bet is that promiscuity would turn out to be a better predictor than switch-hitting as such.

Given a larger survey, it would also be interesting to know the sex of the assailants for the bi cohort. Mostly men, I would guess.

teageegeepea Says:

December 17, 2008 at 6:57 pm

I think you’re right. I believe there is a variable for number of sex partners in the GSS.

Even more on violence against women « Entitled to an Opinion Says:

December 18, 2008 at 12:18 am

[…] Even more on violence against women Posted by teageegeepea under Uncategorized Chip stated in the comments to my previous post that the higher rates of assault on bisexuals may be due to their greater […]

December 18, 2008 at 10:52 pm

I don’t know how reliable it is but this news story linked to by Balko says lesbian and bisexual teens are especially prone to popping out crotch-fruit.

Entitled to an Opinion