Aggregate research on intimate partner violence (IPV) and its context presents special challenges. It was not until the development of the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) that it was possible to efficiently cull out the IPV incidents from other crimes in police reports. In this research, we use 7 years of NIBRS data from one rural mountain state to identify the situational descriptors that serve as the ingredients in the “chemistry of crime.” We found that there is a tendency for IPV incidents to occur late at night, on the weekends, and on certain distinctive holidays. Such information may confirm what many have known anecdotally and help policy makers to best direct scarce prevention-related resources.
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