Background: Intimate partner violence is an ongoing issue, yet little is known about the dynamics of time in marital violence. The purpose of this research was to explore timing to first event of physical and sexual violence against women within heterosexual Latin American and Caribbean marriages.

Method: The study population was married women from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was applied to examine time to first event of physical violence (moderate and severe) and sexual violence.

Results: A trend was observed where women experienced moderate violence most frequently, followed by severe physical violence and sexual violence. For all three violence types, the probabilities of experiencing a first assault by a partner increased the fastest during the first five years of marriage and if a first violent event were to occur, it would have most likely occurred by year 10 for severe and sexual violence and by year 25 for moderate violence.

Conclusion: Women appeared to be relatively protected from severe or sexual violence as long as they do not happen early on, whereas the risk of a first incident of moderate violence was still present in longer-lasting marriages. The first five years of marriage are the most critical for primary prevention of a first incidence of partner violence. Marriage duration is a key dynamic in marital violence.