Correspondence analysis: a method for classifying similar patterns of violence against women Análise de correspondência: um método para classifi cação de mulheres com perfi l semelhante de vitimização

Violence against woman has received relatively little debate in society. It includes physical, psychological, and sexual abuse that jeopardizes the victim’s health. Multivariate correspondence analysis and cluster analysis were applied to crimes reported to the Integrated Women’s Aid Center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to investigate associations between injury and define criteria for classifying the aggressions. Three groups of abuse were identified, differing according to the nature (physical, psychological, or sexual) and severity of the crimes. Less serious crimes consisted of threats and moderate physical injuries. The intermediate severity group included serious physical assault and threats. More serious crimes included death threats, rape, and sexual assault. The method thus allowed classification of the crimes in three groups according to severity. Violence Against Women; Battered Women; Aggression Introduction Violence against women includes a range of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse that degrades the victim’s health and self-esteem. The United Nations officially defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary privations of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life” 1 (p. 3). Culturally, gender violence is the most well known designation for aggression by men against women. Other names can be used, depending mainly on the relationship between victim and aggressor. For example, domestic violence is conceptually less broad than gender violence and refers to violence by a spouse or other family member against a woman in the household where she lives. Still, the idea of domestic violence is closely associated with spouse violence, since it is usually perpetrated by the intimate partner 2,3. In this study, domestic violence against women will be defined as violence committed by the male spouse or partner. The issue of domestic violence against women has still received relatively little debate in society. Frequently characterized as partner aggression, it is generally interpreted as a personal conflict of minor importance. ARTIGO ARTICLE