Colonization puts in place the systems and structures often at the root of heightened violence against women. “There seems to be a need for men to assert control and exact pain from these subjects,” she told me. That link is amply documented well beyond the case of Puerto Rico by scholars like Emilia Quiñones-Otal. The year I left, nearly 12,600 women reported being victims of domestic violence, and the vast majority were attacked in their homes. Between 1995 and 1996, 13 percent of women in Puerto Rico reported that they had been physically assaulted by an intimate partner or family member.

---

Persons: Frances Negrón Muntaner, ”, Emilia, Monroe, “, I’d Organizations: Columbia University, United Nations Women, CNN Locations: Caribbean, Puerto Rico, United States, Guyana, Carolina, San Juan, Atlanta, Puerto Rican