We approve of this violence

Dinorah Azpuru, an associate professor of political science at Wichita State University, recently published an AmericasBarometer Insights: 2015 on Approval of Violence towards Women and Children in Guatemala. While most research addresses violence outside the home, Dinorah takes advantage of recent survey questions that addresses violence at the family level in Guatemala. Here are her main findings:

• Ranking highest in the region on tolerance for domestic violence, 58% of Guatemalans indicate that to some degree (either approving or “understanding”) they condone a husband hitting an unfaithful wife (not as bad as first sounds (?) because the 58% comes from 10% approve hitting an unfaithful wife and 48% disapprove but understand hitting an unfaithful wife)
• There are no gender differences with regard to approving of or rejecting violence towards an unfaithful wife (men and women tend to hold the same views on its acceptance)
• Less than 5% of Guatemalans believe that physical punishment should always or very frequently be used against children who disobey their parents. Nonetheless, 40.5% consider that such punishment is sometimes necessary, while 27.3% believe that it is almost never necessary ("all punishment that uses physical force and has as its objective to cause any degree of pain or discomfort. In the majority of cases, children are hit with either the hand or an object such as a whip, stick, belt, or shoe. However, physical punishment may also include kicking, shaking or pushing, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling the hair or ears, or forcing a child to remain in uncomfortable positions." - I would imagine that we would see significant variation among respondents if asked about specific actions)
• Approximately 15% of Guatemalans report that their parents frequently resorted to physical punishment while 41.7% indicate that they suffered such forms of punishment sometimes

Some other interesting findings include the fact that Guatemalans who live in rural or medium sized cities and those who perceive their economic situation as "good" are more likely to condone violence against a wife who has been unfaithful.  

Ecuador and Venezuela are two countries with low support for violence towards women while Guatemala and El Salvador are the most accepting. I thought maybe this would simply reflect support for violent solutions (of sorts) rather than specific support for any particular type of violence. 

Like violence against women, Guatemalan and El Salvador demonstrate strong support for vigilante justice according to LAPOP's recent regional overview. Venezuela shows up at the bottom in terms of support for vigilante justice which would be consistent with my hunch (low support across the board). However, Ecuadorans maintain strong societal support for vigilante justice, even higher support than Guatemalans and Salvadorans, but low support for violence towards women.