Purpose: Measure the frequency of physical and sexual abuse in a sample of reproductive aged women displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and compare those experiences to the year before Hurricane Katrina.
Methods: Sixty-six English-speaking women aged 18-49 years residing in Louisiana Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) housing were screened for physical and sexual abuse seven to nine months after Hurricane Katrina, using modified 30x7 cluster sampling methodology.
Findings: Twenty-three percent (95% confidence interval [CI], 14, 34%) of women reported being hit or verbally threatened since Hurricane Katrina. Abuse had increased for 33% (95% CI, 13, 63%) and decreased for 13% (95% CI, 4, 37%) of women. Twenty percent (95% CI, 6, 51%) of abused women were with a new partner, while 13% (95% CI, 4, 39%) reported new abuse with the same partner. Four women reported sexual abuse since Hurricane Katrina. Compared to before the storm, the frequency of sexual abuse was the same for two women, and one reported new abuse with the same partner.
Conclusions: Physical abuse was not uncommon among displaced women following Hurricane Katrina. Increasing and new abuse were the most commonly reported experiences. Violence against women should not be overlooked as a continued, and perhaps escalating, occurrence requiring attention following displacement after disasters of such magnitude as Hurricane Katrina.
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PLoS One
December 2024
Office of the Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
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Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice, National Center for Environmental Health, Deputy Director for Non-Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.
Sci Rep
November 2024
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA.
A central problem in the study of human mobility is that of migration systems. Typically, migration systems are defined as a set of relatively stable movements of people between two or more locations over time. While these emergent systems are expected to vary over time, they ideally contain a stable underlying structure that could be discovered empirically.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Public Health
September 2024
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States.
Maladaptive behaviors during a disaster refer to actions that do not benefit the individual or society. Quarantelli highlights several maladaptive behaviors myths associated with disasters: widespread antisocial behavior, passivity, role conflict or abandonment, and sudden widespread mental health breakdowns (1). Despite early work reporting these myths, the common perception is that maladaptive behaviors such as rioting, looting, panic, and criminal conduct are prevalent in the wake of disasters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt Migr
October 2023
Center for Demography and Ecology and Community & Environmental Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
An environmental event that damages housing and the built environment may result in either a short- or long-term out-migration response, depending on residents' recovery decisions and hazard tolerance. If residents move only in the immediate disaster aftermath, then out-migration will be elevated only in the short-term. However, if disasters increase residents' concerns about future risk, heighten vulnerability, or harm the local economy, then out-migration may be elevated for years after an event.
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