Factors Associated with Domestic Violence and Its Effects on Victims and Perpetrators

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH- NURSING
MENTAL HEALTH- NURSING
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1MENTAL HEALTH- NURSING
Domestic violence most of the time is related to the long term physical violence is
especially inflicted in the women population. It is most of the most prevalent forms of
violence that is associated with violence which is gender based on a world-wide prospect.
Not only it is related to physical violence, but also involved psychological violence (Bugeja
et al., 2013). This increasing amount of domestic violence needs to be addressed not only as
an issue in terms of human rights but also as serious health issue which increases the risk of
public health. This paper aims to illustrate the factors associated with the incidence of
domestic violence and the effect it has on the victims. Along with the victims, the paper also
discusses domestic violence from the perspective of the perpetuators.
The socio-economic factors play a pivotal role in the occurrences of domestic
violence. Most of the time the women are the victims of domestic violence, one of the major
reasons is the low socio-economic status of the women. Factors like poverty, along with
unemployment, homelessness and the marital status adds up to the reasons of domestic
violence (Phillips&Vandenbroek, 2014). The income gap that exists between the rich and the
poor is identified as a risk factor for domestic violence. This income gaps keeps on widening
between the rich and the poor, showing that "the average income of the poorest fifth of the
population down six percent and the average income of the top fifth up 30 percent over the
past 20 years" (Root& Brown, 2014). Several other factors like lack of higher education and
employment status adds up to the problems of domestic violence. The factors are often
associated with the poor health which can be both physical and mental health in addition to
pregnancy in the last 5 years, being under the age of 17 while first time sex and having first
child birth under the age of 21 are also identified as being related to the causes of domestic
violence in higher rates (Berns, 2017). The duration of the marriage along with worsening of
the marital relations and marriage by family decision had an incremental effect on the
inflicted domestic violence.Areduced social support network leads to the increase ofsexual

2MENTAL HEALTH- NURSING
violence against women.Most of the identified factors were more or less interconnected with
each other. In the rural setting, factors like religious affiliation also play a role in domestic
violence along with the other factors (Pallitto et al., 2013).
Psychological factors contribute majorly to the occurrence of domestic violence. A
study showed that the individuals especially the men who were involved in inflicting
domestic violence on their intimate partners, out of them 54.5% individuals were exposed to
psychological violence, about 19.3% were exposed to economic violence in addition to
another 6.3% who were exposed to sexual violence (Jahanfar et al., 2013).The study stated
that factors like marriage against the consent of the family and the existence of violent history
against women in the family history of the partner had increasing effects on domestic
violence by an intimate partner. A history of exposure to physical violence during the
childhood phase leads to increased incidences of domestic violence.
In terms of the perpetrators of domestic violence, the existence of domestic violence
between the intimate partners is often related to the psychological perspectives. The problem
emphasises on the personality disorders and the experiences underwent in the early phases or
childhood, which increases the risk of violence. According to most of the studies, men tend to
display more aggression in comparison to women, including psychological aggression
(Tenkorang et al., 2013). These aggressive individuals tend to display increased rates of
jealousy and suspicion in addition to the drastic and sudden mood swings, lack of self-control
and higher than average rates of approval of violence and aggression. The researchers have
identified that most of the antisocial male individuals display aggression in an interpersonal
manner especially against the strangers and their intimate female partners (James, Brody &
Hamilton, 2013). However in the context of aggressive antisocial women, they are only
sometimes aggressive towards their intimate male partners. According to some of the studies,
these individuals who are perpetuators of domestic violence suffer from high rates of