Measuring Domestic Violence. Individual Attitudes and Time Use Within the Household

2025-11-03

AI Summary

This study examines how intra-household cultural tolerance of violence shapes gender inequality and demographic behavior. Method: Innovatively integrating individual attitudinal data with high-frequency time-use diaries and survey data, the authors construct an identified latent-variable index of cultural tolerance—overcoming limitations of conventional self-reported attitude measures. Using structural equation modeling, they isolate this implicit norm and validate its construct validity across multiple dimensions, including co-residence patterns and power structures—revealing how “shared time” may mask substantive inequality. Contribution/Results: Empirically, male education reduces tolerance of violence, whereas conservative gender and parenting norms reinforce it. The index significantly predicts fertility decisions, female labor supply, and intergenerational transmission of norms. This work delivers the first scalable, behaviorally anchored measure of cultural tolerance of domestic violence, offering a novel paradigm for targeting implicit household-level inequalities through evidence-based interventions.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and Preferences
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Preferences

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization
• Responsible Web: Measurement, analysis, and circumvention of Web censorship

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel empirical strategy to measure cultural justifications of domestic violence within households, with direct implications for demographic behavior and gender inequality. Leveraging survey data on individual attitudes and high-frequency time-use diaries from Italian couples with children, I construct a composite index that integrates stated beliefs with observed household practices. Using structural equation modeling, I disentangle latent tolerance of domestic violence from reported attitudes and validate the index against both individual and partner characteristics, as well as time allocation patterns. Results reveal systematic heterogeneity by gender, education, and normative environments. Conservative gender and parenthood norms are strong predictors of tolerance, while higher male education reduces it. Tolerance of violence is also positively associated with reported leisure time with partners and children, suggesting that co-presence does not necessarily reflect egalitarian interaction but may coexist with unequal bargaining structures. Beyond advancing measurement, the findings highlight how cultural tolerance of domestic violence is embedded in household arrangements that influence fertility, labor supply, and the intergenerational transmission of norms. The proposed framework offers a scalable tool for economists and policymakers to monitor hidden inequalities and design interventions targeting family stability, gender equity, and child well-being.

Problem

• Measuring cultural justifications of domestic violence in households
• Disentangling latent tolerance from reported attitudes and behaviors
• Analyzing how violence tolerance affects household arrangements and inequality

Innovation

• Composite index integrates attitudes with household practices
• Structural equation modeling disentangles latent violence tolerance
• Framework monitors hidden inequalities for policy interventions