ORIGINAL ARTICLE Gender-Based Violence in Senegal: its Catalysts and Connections from a Community Perspective Timothy R Werwie 1,2 & Zoe J-L Hildon 2 & Abibou Diagne Camara 3 & Oumoul Khairy Mbengue 2 & Claudia Vondrasek 1,2 & Mamadou Mbaye 3 & Hannah Mills 1,2 & Kuor Kumoji 1,2 & Stella Babalola 1,2 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Gender-based violence is associated with an array of negative health outcomes for women and limits their opportunities to fully participate in society. Only recently have studies begun to explore the interconnectedness of emotional, physical and sexual gender-based violence. This qualitative study sought to understand how men and women in Senegal perceive various forms of gender-based violence, their connections, and who could best promote change among perpetrators of violence. Community focus group discussions that used structured exercises adapted from Participatory Learning and Action group activities were carried out in urban and rural settings in seven regions of Senegal. Groups were sampled for maximum variation within rural and urban settings in each region (n = 28 groups and n = 267 participants). Male and female groups in both urban and rural settings described each form of violence similarly. Examples of emotional violence centered around home finances, neglect, and depen- dency. Emotional violence between male and female spouses escalated to physically and sexually violent behaviors, uniquely directed at women and girls. Physical violence was described in two levels: acceptable and unacceptable. Sexual violence was described as common within households but unreported. Economic considerations cross-cut each form of violence. The findings from this study contribute to conceptual definitions and understandings of GBV from a community perspective to better inform programmatic and communication approaches for the reduction of GBV in Senegal. Challenges will remain until the global community can more effectively address equitable access to financial resources among the world’s poorest. Keywords Senegal . Gender-based violence . Economic violence . Community perspectives One in three women throughout the world experiences gender-based physical or sexual violence in her lifetime (Abrahams et al. 2014; Devries et al. 2013). A recent review of survey data from 96 countries estimates that over half of children in the world experienced emotional, physical, or sex- ual violence in the preceding year (Hillis et al. 2016). Male-to- female gender-based violence (GBV) is associated with a va- riety of negative health outcomes for women (Campbell 2002; Ellsberg et al. 2008), including adverse pregnancy and repro- ductive health outcomes (Silverman and Raj 2014), reduced use or discontinuation of modern contraception (Maxwell et al. 2015; Raj et al. 2016), disproportionate exposure to HIV (Durevall and Lindskog 2015; Kayibanda et al. 2012), and an array of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, and suicide (Devries et al. 2013; Ellsberg and Emmelin 2014; Ludermir et al. 2008). GBV also limits the degree to which women are able to work to earn an income, or make decisions about their own health (Fawole 2008; Vyas and Watts 2009; WHO 2013). It comes as no surprise that the study of GBV and interventions aimed to eliminate it predom- inantly focus on services available for women, in relation to intimate male partners (Abramsky et al. 2011; Ellsberg et al. 2008; Fleming et al. 2015a; Garcia-Moreno et al. 2006). However, neglecting to also understand how male partners’ experiences with violence contributes to its perpetration will Timothy R Werwie, Zoe J-L Hildon and Abibou Diagne Camara contrib- uted equally to this work. * Timothy R Werwie tim.werwie@jhu.edu 1 Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), Baltimore, MD, USA 2 Center for Communication Programs (CCP), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA 3 Center for Communication Programs (CCP), Affiliated on Neema Project, Bureau IntraHealth, Dakar, Senegal Journal of Family Violence https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-019-00058-y