About

Dr. Millan AbiNader is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice, with a focus on understanding the social ecology of gender-based violence, particularly intimate partner violence (IPV)-related fatalities. She is a mixed-methods researcher who investigates how social and geographic factors, such as race and rurality, influence individuals' experiences of gender-based violence. Her work also examines how organizational environments, including vicarious traumatization prevention policies, impact survivor-client experiences. Dr. AbiNader's research aims to support survivor healing and perpetrator change by integrating her extensive practice experience as a community victim services advocate in fields such as sexual violence, family violence, and trafficking. She earned her MSSW from the University of Texas at Austin and her PhD in Social Work from Boston University, where she completed an award-winning dissertation on rural intimate partner homicide. She has held positions as a Postdoctoral Scholar at Arizona State University and is a Senior Scholar at the Penn Injury Science Center, a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, and a Deans' Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine. Her research has been recognized with awards for her work on IPV-related fatalities, and she continues to lead projects on IPV-related homicide, suicide, vicarious trauma, and gender-based violence interventions, working closely with community agencies to evaluate programs and assess needs.

Research topics

• Environmental health
• Medicine
• Psychology
• Geography
• Criminology
• Gerontology
• Social psychology
• Demography
• Psychiatry

Selected publications

• Substance use and injury severity in domestic assaults using emergency medical services (EMS) in the USA: a cross-sectional study

  Injury Prevention · 2026-04-01

  articleSenior author

  BACKGROUND: Substance use can elevate the risk and severity of domestic assault. Using US emergency medical services (EMS) data, this study examined domestic assault severity and associated substance use across the life course. METHODS: This study used 2019 National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) data to describe patient substance use and injury severity among domestic assault cases (n=176 931). Substance use was compared across demographic groups and severity of injury (patient acuity, neurological impairment and transport to trauma centre). Multinomial regression analysed the association between substance use and injury severity indicators. RESULTS: While alcohol was the most frequent substance used, drug use and combined use were more common with severe injuries. Male patients had higher odds of all severe injury indicators with drug use or combined use. Female patients had increased odds of severe injury with any substance use. When stratified by sex, alcohol use significantly contributed to injury differences between male and female patients. Specifically, alcohol use increased the risk of severe injuries for female patients and decreased or had no impact on the risk of severe injuries for male patients. DISCUSSION: NEMSIS data showed that substance use increased the risk of severe injury from domestic assault across every stage of life, furthering the call for gender-specific interventions in emergency medical care that address these co-occurring issues to prevent severe violence.

  PublisherDOI

• Withdrawal From the Civil Court Protection Process by Female Survivors of Domestic Violence: A Scoping Review of the Literature

  Trauma Violence & Abuse · 2025-12-18

  reviewOpen accessCorresponding

  In many countries, protection orders are the civil court system's primary response to domestic violence. While there is significant evidence as to their effectiveness, as many as half of all temporary protection orders are withdrawn or dismissed before being finalized, with limited empirical research as to why. As the first step in a multi-phased research-community partnership to improve a counseling and service program for survivors of domestic violence in South Africa, we undertook a systematic review of the literature to identify what is known about why some female survivors finalize protection orders and others do not. Using a keyword search strategy in academic databases, we included peer-reviewed studies published from January 2004 to June 2024 that focused on case attrition and the factors associated with retention and/or withdrawal. Of the eight studies that met the eligibility criteria, six reported findings from the United States, one from Ecuador, and one from South Africa. Key reasons for attrition were emotional attachment, concerns for children, perceived behavior change in partner, fear of retaliation, challenges in the court processes, default at hearing, financial dependence, gender stereotypes, and lack of opportunities for economic independence. Most of the data supporting these findings were more than a decade old. Without more contemporary research on why female survivors remain in or exit protective order processes, communities may miss opportunities for intervention to reduce personal, procedural, and structural impediments to safety.

  PublisherDOI

• Preventing Intimate Partner Murder–Suicide: A Case-Control Study of Suicidal Males in Abusive Relationships

  American Journal of Preventive Medicine · 2025-08-27 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Managing the Impacts of Exposure to Trauma on Injury and Violence Research Teams

  Homicide Studies · 2025-10-26 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Witnessing violence and injury in research can elicit affective and cognitive reactions. It is imperative that research teams develop trauma-responsive interventions, but little is known about their effectiveness. A convenience sample of violence and injury scholars ( n = 64) was recruited through listservs and social media. Scholars answered an online survey about their experience managing research teams and the perceived effectiveness of interventions. Strategies and their perceived effectiveness were described, and a linear regression indicated factors associated with the number of strategies used. Qualitative responses were analyzed using content analysis. This study found that supervisors used a variety of intervention techniques. Most methods were perceived as moderately effective, while requiring time off and having a team member dedicated to well-being programing were rated as highly effective. Qualitative data indicated that to be effective, these strategies needed to be paired with genuine, expressed care for supervisees’ well-being and behavior modeling. The number of strategies used was influenced by supervision experience and one’s belief that researchers could be impacted by trauma exposure. This study indicated that researchers need a variety of strategies to intervene in vicarious trauma. More experimental research is needed to test the long-term effectiveness of such interventions.

  PublisherDOI

• National Trends in Parental Communication With Their Teenage Children About the Dangers of Substance Use, 2002–2016

  UNC Libraries · 2025-02-25

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Co-occurrence of Intimate Partner Violence and Suicide Mortality Among Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States

  Journal of Adolescent Health · 2024-10-29 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Population-Level Surveillance of Domestic Assaults in the Home Using the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS)

  Prevention Science · 2024-05-30 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Violence in the home, including partner violence, child abuse, and elder abuse, is pervasive in the United States. An informatics approach allowing automated analysis of administrative data to identify domestic assaults and release timely and localized data would assist preventionists to identify geographic and demographic populations of need and design tailored interventions. This study examines the use of an established national dataset, the NEMSIS 2019, as a potential annual automated data source for domestic assault surveillance. An algorithm was used to identify individuals who utilized emergency medical services (EMS) for a physical assault in a private residence (N = 176,931). Descriptive analyses were conducted to define the identified population and disposition of patients. A logistic regression was performed to predict which characteristics were associated with consistent domestic assault identification by the on-scene EMS clinician and dispatcher. The sample was majority female (52.2%), White (44.7%), urban (85.5%), and 21-29 years old (24.4%). A disproportionate number of those found dead on scene were men (74.5%), and female patients more often refused treatment (57.8%) or were treated and then released against medical advice (58.4%). Domestic assaults against children and seniors had higher odds of being consistently identified by both the dispatcher and EMS clinician than those 21-49, and women had lower odds of consistent identification than men. While a more specific field to identify the type of domestic assault (e.g., intimate partner) would help inform specialized intervention planning, these data indicate an opportunity to systematically track domestic assaults in communities and describe population-specific needs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Violence Against Children in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review of Literature on the Victim–Perpetrator Relationship

  Trauma Violence & Abuse · 2024-10-31 · 6 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Violence against children affects children in every region, nation, and community in the world. Despite a significant body of literature about the victims of such violence, there has been little empirical research, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, focused on perpetrators, their relationship to victims, and interventions that might alter their behavior. This scoping review sought to identify and summarize the scholarly literature on perpetrators of violence against children in Sub-Saharan Africa and their relationship with victims. Using a keyword search of academic databases, we included peer-reviewed studies published from January 2013 to June 2023 that focused on physical, sexual, or emotional violence against children in Sub-Saharan Africa and included prevalence data about victim-perpetrator relationships. Eighteen of the 42 studies that met eligibility criteria shared one or more primary data sources with other studies included in this review, most frequently using data from Violence Against Children Surveys (10), the Uganda Good Schools Project (7), and the National Child Homicide Study (3). The most common classifications of perpetrators, in order of frequency, were caregivers/family members, intimate partners, peers, teachers/school staff and strangers, and the most common settings in which research took place were schools. Wide variability in the taxonomies used to define and report frequencies for age, victim, perpetrator, and type of violence obscures our ability to form a complete picture of victim-perpetrator relationships. Research emphasis on victims of violence may lead to missed opportunities to disrupt the perpetration of violence against children through interventions that specifically target its source.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• What is ‘Rural’, Anyway?

  2023-05-30

  other1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Femicide in the United States

  2023-04-20 · 4 citations

  book-chapter

  This chapter examines femicide in the United States, where women are most likely to be killed by their male intimate partner in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV). We attend particularly to the disproportionate killing of Black and Indigenous women, given the legacy of slavery and colonisation in the US. Although the legal system is the main intervention to prevent intimate partner femicide (IPF), systemic racism creates barriers to use. High rates of firearm ownership in the US result in high rates of firearm homicide; firearm restrictions implemented consistently may prevent femicide. Research on risk factors for homicide among diverse groups, attending to the needs of communities of colour, and the development of community-informed interventions that address systemic barriers and discrimination may also assist in femicide prevention.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Michael G. Vaughn

  28 shared

• Jill T. Messing

  Arizona State University

  17 shared

• Jacquelyn C. Campbell

  Johns Hopkins University

  11 shared

• Sehun Oh

  9 shared

• Christopher P. Salas‐Wright

  Boston College

  8 shared

• Christopher P. Salas‐Wright

  Boston College

  7 shared

• Jesenia M. Pizarro

  Arizona State University

  7 shared

• Francis Barchi

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  4 shared

Awards & honors

• NVDRS New Investigator Award (APHA, CDC)
• Catherine Barber Award (APHA, the Joyce Foundation)