Domestic Violence and Socioeconomic Factors

Running head: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Domestic violence
Name of the student
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1DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Domestic violence has been arising as one of the major health and welfare issues.
Domestic violence can be defined as the abuse, violence and intimidation among people who
have been in an intimate relationship (Dillon et al., 2013). A person in the relation uses violence,
cruelty and abuse to control the other person. According to reports in the two years from 2012 to
2014, one woman every week and one man every month were killed by their former or current
partner (Jonas et al., 2014). The growing concern rising regarding this particular issue has been
drawn to this essay. The essay discusses domestic violence and socioeconomic factors including
reference to international and Australian sources. Also, the essay discusses the domestic violence
and psychological factors including factors including development during infancy and childhood.
The socioeconomic factors include not only one income but also financial status,
educational qualification and perception of social class. The socioeconomic factors include
quality of life one is capable of living as well as the opportunities and privileges one received
from the society (Tenkorang et al., 2013). The education level is one of the major factors
affecting domestic violence. Although there is no ground rule of identifying the level of
education which will enlighten the harasser, it is often seen that the less educated or illiterate
people are mostly the people who use violence in household activities on partners. The
socialisation process of a child, norms and values of families are in many ways contributing to
domestic violence as a problem. Children witnessing domestic violence while growing up in-
house and in the surrounded by families in a neighbourhood where domestic violence is common
are likely to use the abusive methods in their own house as well (Radford et al., 2013). Families
living in poverty and families from wealthy background differ in many ways. The economic
status is an important factor to consider under the socioeconomic factors. The method of facing
challenges and overcoming them varies with the typology of family. It would be wrong to

2DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
identify all the families from a wealthy background as people abandoning domestic violence as
there are existences of such cases globally. People belong below the poverty line are constantly
stressed regarding financial as well as basic needs (Folkman, 2013). The problem of such
stresses often leads to change in behaviour such as consumption of alcohol, drug use and use of
violence (Cloward & Ohlin, 2013). According to researches, it is the poor people and children
who are mostly the victim of domestic violence. Researchers have also found ethnicity to be a
contributing factor in the issue. Ethnicity is often found closely inter-related to socioeconomic
status. Hispanic women and African American women belonging to the low-income group are
more prone to be victimised. Traditionally, men are the responsible for earning money and
women are accountable for doing household works and maintaining children. A man often uses
violence for the need to exert power when they are faced with challenges in the outer world.
Also, women earning an adequate amount of money in the low-income houses lead to violence
as the man with lack of education uses violence on women look to feel powerful (Root & Brown,
2014). Although the focus is mainly on women as the victim and commonly known as well that
it is the women who are victimised, pieces of evidence show that abuse is of both types and
occurring on both the gender in the lower income families.
In an overall view, socioeconomic factors are inter-related with many factors such as
education level, upbringing locality, family values, social perspective, income level and many
more. It is the excessive stress in the low-income families that increases the chances of domestic
violence. Although low-income groups are highlighted in most of the times, studies show that
domestic violence is common in all the culture. Therefore, it is an issue that is becoming
highlighted among the healthcare and social workers.