Enrique Gracia

University of Valencia | UV · Departamento de Psicología Social

Intimate partner violence (IPV) and child abuse (CA) are two forms of family violence with shared qualities and risk factors, and are forms of violence that tend to overlap. Acceptability of violence in partner relationships is a known risk factor in IPV just as acceptability of parent–child aggression is a risk factor in CA. We hypothesized that t...

In this study, we analyze first whether there is a common spatial distribution of child maltreatment (CM) and intimate partner violence (IPV), and second, whether the risks of CM and IPV are influenced by the same neighborhood characteristics, and if these risks spatially overlap. To this end we used geocoded data of CM referrals (N = 588) and IPV...

Attitudes toward intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) are increasingly recognized as central to understanding of this major social and public health problem, and guide the development of more effective prevention efforts. However, to date this area of research is underdeveloped in western societies, and in particular in the EU. The prese...

We conducted a small-area ecological longitudinal study to analyze neighborhood contextual influences on the spatio-temporal variations in intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) risk in a southern European city over an eight-year period. We used geocoded data of IPVAW cases with associated protection orders (n = 5867) in the city of Valenc...

In the last decades, prevention measures have been taken globally to reduce the high prevalence of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) in our societies. As a consequence, a gradual reduction in the prevalence of IPVAW in the younger generations should be expected. However, international prevalence data suggest that this is not the case....

Dating violence (DV) is a social problem that affects adolescents worldwide. Prevalence figures show that this type of violence is starting at an increasingly younger age, which is why it is important to study attitudes toward DV, as they are an important risk factor. Victim-blaming attitudes justify this type of violence by excusing perpetrators a...

Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a global problem, and suicidal behaviour is one of its most serious consequences. However, no study has investigated the spatial overlap between the two. The aim of this paper is to analyse whether there is spatial overlap between IPVAW and suicide-related calls in the same neighbourhoods, and to i...

Attitudes toward intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) are being increasingly recognized as a central issue for comprehensively understanding this complex phenomenon. While IPVAW remains widespread in Latin America, knowledge about it and research on attitudes toward IPVAW are limited. This systematic review synthesized quantitative peer-...

The apparently contradictory co-existence of high levels of gender equality and intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) found in Nordic countries has been termed the Nordic Paradox. The aim of this study was to examine how the Nordic Paradox is discussed and explained by Spanish professionals working in the IPVAW field. Five focus groups (...

Objective: The aim of this study was to conduct a comprehensive spatio-temporal analysis of suicide-related emergency calls in the city of Valencia (Spain) over a six-year period. To this end we first examined age and gender patterns and, second, the influence of neighborhood characteristics on general and gender-specific spatio-temporal patterns o...

Intervention programs for male intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrators mostly use the group intervention modality. Notwithstanding, the literature has neglected the study of group-related variables and their possible association with these interventions’ functioning and outcomes. This systematic review aimed to analyze group-related variables,...

Dating violence (DV) is a social problem that affects adolescents worldwide. Previous systematic reviews have mainly examined universal prevention programs with varying designs and outcomes. The lack of systematic reviews focusing on at-risk adolescents limits knowledge about which interventions are more effective. This systematic review synthesize...

Objective: Attitudes justifying intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) contribute to its persistence, and cross-national research on these attitudes can provide a window into the normative context of IPVAW and a key indicator to monitor global progress in preventing IPVAW. Monitoring cross-national attitudes about IPVAW requires psychometr...

Introducción: La violencia de pareja contra la mujer (VPM) es un problema de salud pública a nivel global cuya prevalencia en Ecuador es de las más elevadas de Latinoamérica. La gravedad percibida de la VPM influye en las actitudes públicas hacia la VPM, como la aceptabilidad, el sentido de responsabilidad personal o la disposición a intervenir en...

Men with alcohol and/or other drug use problems (ADUPs) court-mandated to attend intervention programs for intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrators have been identified as a high-risk, highly resistant group of IPV perpetrators, as they present lower treatment adherence and higher dropout and recidivism rates. Previous research suggests that IP...

Treatment adherence and motivation to change are among the main challenges in intervention programs for Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) perpetrators. Motivational strategies have shown promising results in increasing the effectiveness of intervention programs for IPV perpetrators. One of these motivational strategies is goal setting. The aim of thi...

Much of the research conducted on social information processing (SIP) factors predictive of child abuse risk has been conducted in North America, raising questions about how applicable such models may be in other cultures. Based on the premise that the parents’ child abuse risk is affected by both risk and protective factors, the current study cons...

Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a global public health issue often assumed to be associated with gender inequality. The so-called Nordic Paradox, the apparently contradictory co-existence of high levels of IPVAW and of gender equality in Nordic countries, has not been adequately explained. This study explores discussions about ho...

Attitudes of acceptability of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) are considered one of the main risk factors of this type of violence. The aim of this study is to develop and validate a short version of the acceptability of IPVAW scale, the A-IPVAW-8, for large scale studies where space and time are limited. A panel of experts were ask...

The aim of this study was to understand the reasons why Spain has one of the lowest prevalence rates of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) in the European Union. Using a qualitative and inductive research approach, a total of five focus groups (n = 19) and 10 unstructured interviews with key informants were conducted. Three main catego...

Public perceptions of the severity of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) incidents are an important factor that has been linked to key issues regarding this type of violence, such as acceptability or tolerance, personal sense of responsibility, attitudes toward intervention, and the public's, professionals, and victims' responses to IP...

Bayesian spatio-temporal models are an emerging research approach to the study of the ecological variations of child maltreatment at the neighborhood level. A small but growing number of studies are recently applying this perspective to analyze the neighborhood-level characteristics that influence the spatial distribution of child maltreatment in t...

Ecuador is one of the Latin American countries with the highest prevalence of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW), a social and public health issue with severe consequences for the well-being of women. Attitudes of acceptability towards IPVAW are a key factor to understand this problem and developing effective prevention and interventio...

The aim of the present study was to identify the main risk factors and treatment needs of batterer intervention program (BIP) participants with alcohol and drug abuse problems (ADAPs), beyond issues strictly related to their substance abuse, taking into account four sets of variables: sociodemographic (i.e., age, educational level, income, employme...

Traditionally, intimate-partner violence has been considered a special type of crime that occurs behind closed doors, with different characteristics from street-level crime. The aim of this study is to analyze the spatial overlap of police calls reporting street-level and behind-closed-doors crime. We analyzed geocoded police calls in the 552 censu...

La violencia de pareja contra la mujer (VPM) constituye un grave problema de salud pública con importantes consecuencias para la salud física y psicológica de las mujeres. Las actitudes de culpabilización de la víctima pueden contribuir a crear un clima de aceptación social en el que la VPM se perciba como una conducta normativa, influyendo en las...

Objective: To our knowledge, no studies have considered whether neuropsychological performance moderates the relationship between Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart’s intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) perpetrator typologies and treatment compliance and recidivism. Therefore, we first aimed to assess whether the typologies show differences i...

Recent emergent research is seriously questioning whether parental strictness contributes to children's psychosocial adjustment in all cultural contexts. We examined cross-generational differences in parental practices characterized by warmth and practices characterized by strictness, as well as the relationship between parenting styles (authoritat...

Despite being rated as some of the world’s most gender equal countries, Sweden and neighboring Nordic nations show high rates of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW). As the news media contribute to the shaping of public attitudes, this article pursues a two-step discourse analysis of how IPVAW was represented in seven Swedish newspapers...

Previous research suggests that the inclusion of motivational strategies in interventions for intimate partner violence (IPV) offenders could increase their effectiveness. This review evaluated the effectiveness of interventions for IPV offenders that includes motivational strategies to reduce physical and psychological IPV, treatment dropout, offi...

Background Considerable debate exists on whether the substantiation decision is a reliable measure for rates of maltreatment. Studies have shown that risks among children victims of maltreatment versus children investigated but unsubstantiated are similar. Objective This paper aims to respond to two research questions: (1) Do most child maltreatme...

Motivational strategies are among the most promising approaches to improve the effectiveness of batterer intervention programs (BIPs). An individualized motivational plan (IMP) is one of these motivational strategies. The present study aimed to explore whether adding an IMP to a standard BIP improved the participant-facilitator working alliance and...

There is general consensus that alcohol abuse is a risk factor to be considered in batterer intervention programs. Intimate partner violence perpetrators with alcohol abuse problems are more likely to drop out of batterer intervention programs. However, there is little research on intimate partner violence perpetrators with alcohol abuse problems c...

Background: Gender equality is widely accepted as an important explanatory factor for the occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. However, the relationship is not straightforward, as high country-level gender equality is not always associated with lower IPV prevalence. We apply 'multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity...

Objectives To ensure the cross-national comparability of the set of questions addressing physical and sexual intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) included in the European Union (EU) Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) survey. Once the measurement invariance of these measures is established, we aim to make appropriate and valid comparison...

Background Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a worldwide public health problem. One of the most frequent forms of this type of violence in western societies is psychological IPVAW. According to the European Union (EU) Fundamental Rights Association (FRA) the prevalence of psychological IPVAW in the EU is 43%. However, the measureme...

The global public health problem of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is typically tied to gender inequality. Contrary to what would be expected, however, a 2012 survey conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) showed lifetime prevalence rates of IPVAW in the Nordic countries which were among the highest of t...

Strategies to reduce intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) can be targeted at different levels. Batterer intervention programs (BIPs) are among the main treatment approaches for IPVAW offenders. The most common outcome used in the evaluation of BIP effectiveness is recidivism. Efforts to increase BIP effectiveness in reducing recidivism s...

Bayesian spatial modeling is increasingly used for studying different social problems, including crime and violence. However, there is less research that has analyzed crime-related outcomes from a multivariate perspective. The aim of this study is to analyze the shared spatial structure for three types of police calls. The study was conducted in th...

There is considerable interest in offering insight into the mechanisms that might explain why certain perpetrators of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) drop out of interventions. Although several socio-demographic variables and attitudes towards IPVAW have been proposed as risk factors for IPVAW perpetrators’ dropout, less attention h...

The high prevalence of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) in countries with high levels of gender equality has been defined as the “Nordic paradox”. In this study we compared physical and sexual IPVAW prevalence data in two countries exemplifying the Nordic paradox: Sweden (N = 1483) and Spain (N = 1447). Data was drawn from the Europe...

Background Alcohol outlet density has been linked to rates of substantiated maltreatment both cross-sectionally and over time. Most of these studies have been conducted in Anglo-Saxon countries, especially in the U.S., but other countries, where alcohol outlets and alcohol consumption may have different social meanings, are clearly underrepresente...

Attitudes about the acceptability of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) contribute to an increased risk of IPVAW perpetration, and these attitudes are common among IPVAW offenders. Research suggests that IPVAW offenders present cognitive deficits related to information processing. Little is known, however, about how these deficits are...

Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a major public health problem in countries around the world, including the Nordic region. Contrary to what would be expected, as the Nordic countries are rated among the most gender equal in the world, survey data suggests that the lifetime prevalence rates of IPVAW in Sweden and neighboring Nordic...

Introduction. There is growing scientific interest in understanding the biological mechanisms affecting and/or underlying violent behaviours in order to develop effective treatment and prevention programs. In recent years, neuroscientific research has tried to demonstrate whether the intrinsic activity within the brain at rest in the absence of any...

Las llamadas que la Policía Local recibe diariamente movilizan actuaciones de estas fuerzas de seguridad que, entre otras cosas, facilitan la prevención de futuros delitos y problemáticas sociales. Pero no solo eso, la información que proporcionan estas llamadas puede desempeñar, igualmente, un papel relevante en el análisis y conocimiento de los p...

Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is the most common form of violence suffered by women and constitutes a serious public health problem of global proportions. Public attitudes towards IPVAW are key to understanding the social context in which this type of violence occurs. Victim-blaming attitudes are among those that reflect public to...

Objectives Empathy (i.e., the ability to decode emotions, as well as cognitive and emotional empathy) is involved in moral reasoning, prosocial behaviour, social and emotional adequacy, mood and behaviour regulation. Hence, alterations in these functions could reduce behaviour control and the adoption of specific types of violence such as intimate...

Willingness to intervene when one becomes aware of a case of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) reflects the level of tolerance and acceptance of this type of violence in society. Increasing the likelihood of intervention to help victims of IPVAW is also a target for prevention strategies aiming to increase informal social control of I...

Background Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a global and preventable public health problem. Public attitudes, such as victim-blaming, are important for our understanding of differences in the occurrence of IPVAW, as they contribute to its justification. In this paper, we focus on victim-blaming attitudes regarding IPVAW within the...

Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a major social and public health problem of global proportions. Public attitudes toward IPVAW shape the social environment in which such violence takes place, and attitudes of acceptability of IPVAW are considered a risk factor to actual IPVAW. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a sc...

Previous research has shown that neighborhood-level variables such as social deprivation, social fragmentation or rurality are related to suicide risk, but most of these studies have been conducted in the U.S. or northern European countries. The aim of this study was to analyze the spatio-temporal distribution of suicide in a southern European city...

Some neighborhood characteristics linked to social disorganization theory have been related to intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW). The study of other neighborhood‐level factors that may influence IPVAW risk, however, has received less attention. The aim of this study is to analyze the influence of university campuses on IPVAW risk. To...

Objective: Treatment compliance and motivation to change are among the main challenges to improving batterer intervention program (BIP) effectiveness. This study examined whether adding an individualized motivational plan (IMP) to a standard BIP (SBIP) increased intervention effectiveness relative to BIP alone. Method: One hundred sixty males co...

The working alliance is a key element to increase intimate partner violence (IPV) offenders’ motivation, adherence to treatment, and active participation in batterer intervention programs (BIPs). The objective of the present study is to assess the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Working Alliance Inventory–Observer Short Version...

ResumenDiversas investigaciones destacan el rol de las diferen­cias culturales y de los factores relacionados con la inmi­gración en la violencia contra la pareja. El objetivo de este trabajo era analizar si existe un perfil diferencial en­tre hombres maltratadores españoles (n = 400) e inmi­grantes latinoamericanos (n = 117). Para ello se seleccio...

Alcohol outlets have been associated with different social problems, such as crime, violence, intimate partner violence, and child maltreatment. The spatial analysis of neighborhood availability of alcohol outlets is key for better understanding of these influences. Most studies on the spatial distribution of alcohol outlets in the community have b...

Background: ‘Place’ matters in understanding prevalence variations and inequalities in child maltreatment risk. However, most studies examining ecological variations in child maltreatment risk fail to take into account the implications of the spatial and temporal dimensions of neighborhoods. In this study, we conduct a high-resolution small-area st...

This article aims to identify different personal characteristics in treatment-responsive and treatment-resistant perpetrators of intimate partner violence who completed a batterer intervention program (BIP). The sample consists of 105 perpetrators of intimate partner violence who were court-mandated to a community-based cognitive behavioral program...

Considerable effort has been devoted to incorporate temporal trends in disease mapping. In this line, this work describes the importance of including the effect of the seasonality in a particular setting related with suicides. In particular, the number of suicide-related emergency calls is modeled by means of an autoregressive approach to spatio-te...

The present study aimed to cross-validate Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart's typology in a Spanish sample of court-referred intimate partner violence batterers. The study also analyzed the typology's capability to predict treatment attendance, completion, and IPV recidivism two years after the treatment. The sample consisted of 210 batterers court refe...

This paper aimed to analyze the spatial distribution of drug-related police interventions and the neighborhood characteristics influencing these spatial patterns. To this end, police officers ranked each census block group in Valencia, Spain (N = 552), providing an index of drug-related police interventions. Data from the City Statistics Office and...

Recently, there has been a growing interest in developing new tools to measure neighborhood features using the benefits of emerging technologies. This study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of a neighborhood disorder observational scale using Google Street View (GSV). Two groups of raters conducted virtual audits of neighborhood disorder...

Background: The association between alcohol consumption and intimate partner violence (IPV) has been reiterated in numerous studies. Some authors have found higher levels of risk factors in intimate partner violence offenders (IPVOs) with alcohol problems than in IPVOs without such problems. Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze the rel...