Analizar la relación que tiene el nivel socioeconómico sobre la violencia física y psicológica en el Ecuador

Abstract

In Ecuador during the 1990s, physical and psychological violence against women in the family environment was seen as a private matter in which the State should not intervene. This was reflected in the legislative, judicial, and executive spheres, as well as in other sectors of society. As a result, women who suffered violence did not have the possibility of reporting it, since the Code of Criminal Procedure prohibited complaints between spouses or descendants. Victims of any type of violence are more likely to be injured and suffer negative effects on their sexual, reproductive, and mental health. In this context, the current research seeks to analyze the relationship between socioeconomic status and physical and psychological violence in Ecuador. For this, an estimated probit model is used, which focuses on finding the joint density function or maximum likelihood function. The data comes from the National Survey of Family Relations and Gender Violence against Women (ENVIGMU), conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) in 2019, the second of its kind after an initial survey in 2011. The survey collects information on household characteristics, ethnicity of the woman, education level, and age, as well as on the experience of violence suffered by the woman during her relationship. Two dependent variables are created in this model to determine whether women have been victims of physical or psychological violence. Since these variables are dichotomous, a non-linear model is implemented. The effect of socioeconomic level on physical and psychological violence is analyzed, maintaining the same set of control variables for both models. The objective is to avoid biases in the results and to consider other factors that may influence violence.