Socioeconomic and Psychological Factors in Domestic Violence

This essay discusses the impact of socioeconomic and psychological factors on the emergence of domestic violence. It includes data and surveys conducted by the World Health Organization and provides a holistic assessment of the topic.

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
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Domestic violence is the event in which, to gain power, control or right over a person
attached in an intimate relationship such as family or life partners, another person uses physical.,
sexual, emotional and economic means to stalk, terrorize isolate or coercion as well as
intimidation (Johnson, 2016). As per Herman (2015), the domestic violence and its prevailing
forms which are generally seen around the world are physical, sexual, verbal, religious and
reproductive violence. Despite the fact that domestic violence could harm the structure of the
entire society, older adults, women, and children are prone to such violent actions. As per the
data collected from the United Nations (2018), women are suffering from domestic violence the
most and the perpetrators are generally their family members, their husbands (total 35%) or their
intimate partners (30%). The factors due to which such activities are spreading in the society are
environmental, social, and psychosocial and with changes in the values of societies, the rate of
domestic violence changes. For example due to a huge gap in the socio-economic status of
communities, their level of economic freedom, educational attainment and rate of employment
changes, on the other hand, psychosocial violence, verbal attacks, intimidations, humiliation and
isolation increases (Beydoun et al., 2012). Therefore, the goal of this essay is to determine the
Psychosocial and socio-economical factors and their role in the emergence of domestic violence
and in this course, the perspective of perpetrator and victim, both will be discussed.
Domestic violence and socioeconomic factors
Socio-economic status (SES) is the social standing of a community or group depending
upon their attainment of occupation education their financial strength and their contribution to
the power structure (Guedes et al., 2015). It has been and it is evident in societies nowadays that
with good socio-economic status, people are able to reach out to good health education and
occupation, which are the fundamental needs of a human for leading a good life and hence in

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lack of these people are affected from sociological, psychological and physical perspective
(Dalal & Lindqvist, 2012). Further, if the distribution of education, power, and employment is
not properly distributed to each member of the society, it leads to a huge gap between them,
which cannot be filled without a strong approach (Tippett & Wolke, 2014). Therefore, this
inequality leads to frustration and feeling of disparity within the poorer and deprived section of
the society. Therefore, from this, it becomes evident that Low SES, nonattainment to education
and occupation and compromised health affects each of the members of the society (Beydoun et
al., 2012). For example, if the data of the Australian Bureau of Statistics is witnessed, it will be
evident that the presence of violence especially domestic violence against women and children is
higher in the deprived community of Australia (ABS, 2018). Such as the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islanders as their SES and attainment to health and education is quite lower than the other
communities of Australian society are (Pearlman et al., 2016).
Despite the fact that domestic violence affects the Lower SES people, in higher-class
societies as well such violence is evident (Covey, Menard & Franzese, 2013). To understand the
prevalence of domestic violence in educated and financially stable societies, it is important to
understand that the importance of power and status is primary for such class of people.
International Violence Against Women Survey (IVAWS) conducted a survey in the year 2013
that determined that majority of violent cases in such upper-class societies are due to financial
and power related status and hence, physical, verbal and sexual violence against women are
witnessed in the majority of the cases (United Nations, 2018). Further, the data of Australian
governmental survey for violence against women determined that intimate partners of victim
women who were receiving a governmental pension or were provided with governmental aids
attempted 60% of violence cases (United Nations, 2018). Therefore, from both of these survey

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results, it is evident that financial stress and lust for power could be another reason besides lower
SES in societies that affect both the lower SES and higher SES communities or societies (Tippett
& Wolke, 2014).
Lower SES brings poor attainment of health, education and occupational scarcity. Due to
this, women in such societies are unaware of their rights, and the strength given by the
government to protect them against domestic violence (Dalal & Lindqvist, 2012). Therefore,
they suffer from such physical and domestic violence by their in-laws, family members or
intimate partners. In Australia, the majority of the domestic violence cases are framed and
performed by the nearest family member or intimate partners of the victim child or women
(Guedes et al., 2015). Therefore, besides the lack of higher SES or educational attainment or
power, unawareness is one of the major reasons for such domestic violence-related cases in
Australia and throughout the world. Hence, from all these above-mentioned stats it is evident that
people or communities suffering from lower socio-economic status, lower attainment of health
and education, less contribution to power, struggling from financial stress or unaware about the
legislation and rights are more prone to dome4stic violence than others (Covey, Menard &
Franzese, 2013).
Domestic violence and psychological factors
While discussing the holistic health of a person, two aspects should be mentioned such as
the physical health and the mental health due to which people can lead a stable and healthy life
and imbalance creates such an unrest that can destroy the entire society (Straus, Gelles &
Steinmetz, 2017). However, it is dependent on the person to create a balance between his or her
negative and positive thoughts arise from any event or situation so that overall health can be
maintained. The stressors that can affect an imbalance between these two aspects are stress,

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hopelessness, self-esteem, greed, hostility, lust and depression. Therefore, if unrest or imbalance
between these factors emerges, violence especially domestic violence arises (Yamawaki et al.,
2012). It is natural that while cohabiting with other people in a family, thinking and mindset of
each member differs from one another and hence mental and psychological trauma is created in a
situation of conflict in which starting from children to older adults, everyone could be affected.
This is because, psychological trauma in such close relationships leads to fear, vulnerability and
breaks the self-esteem and confidence of the victim (Espelage, Low & De La Rue, 2012). To
determine the effect of such affected mental health on the emergence of domestic violence a
survey was conducted by the authorities of Australian mental health association (The Australian
National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2018). in this survey it was determined that
more than 1218 women who took part in the survey reported that their intimate partners, who
were in affectionate relationship with them, conducted such violent actions, rape or sexual
violence and when the partners of such victims were assessed, it was found that 77% of such
perpetrators were suffering from anxiety or depression. Further, 50% of victims were also
suffering from depression and mental health condition after such violence (The Australian
National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2018).
Immature psychological development occurs due to lack of proper nutrition, education,
and attainment of health and it is more evident in communities with low SES. Hence, such
communities become vulnerable, affected by depression and affect their social structure, social
support, and other important aspects (Reina, Lohman & Maldonado, 2014). Therefore, in such
condition, people living in such societies become affected with the mental health condition and
suffers from verbal, emotional violence, disrespect, racial and sexual discrimination, which is the
primary reason for violence throughout the world. A study was conducted by the World Health

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Organization (2018) in which the perspective of both perpetrator and victim both described while
and after the domestic violence. It mentions that due to social discrimination, racial attacks,
financial disparity majority of the communities around the world are unable to compete with the
developing or developed communities for fundamental rights (Straus, Gelles & Steinmetz, 2017).
This makes them suffer from substance abuse and hence, they cannot balance their thinking in
which the negative thought overpowers the stable and rational thoughts (Andrews & Bonta,
2014). This is the primary reason for the perpetrators to attempt such domestic violence,
whereas, on victims, this is the most traumatic situation in their life as they lose their strength,
confidence, and willpower, which is important psychologically to survive the traumatic life
events (Kulkarni et al., 2013). Further, it was also provided in the data by World Health
Organization (2018) that in Australia more than 60% of substance abusers performed violence
against their family or friends as they were unable to control their thoughts and actions.
Therefore, from the abovementioned facts and data, it is evident that psychological effect is one
of the major aspects, which should be assessed while determining the reason of domestic
violence in society as a majority of the violence occurs due to imbalance mental condition and
unstable control over thoughts of the perpetrators (Espelage, Low & De La Rue, 2012). This
section provided the facts, which are responsible for such imbalanced thoughts, and
unconstructive actions, which leads to affect the mental health of people around the globe and
increase the rate of domestic violence.
Therefore, in conclusion of the assignment, it should be mentioned that domestic violence
is such an offensive action that not only affects the physical structure of the society but also
molds the mental thinking of generations if persists. There are several factors that impact the
emergence of domestic violence such as the socio-economic factors and the psychological

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factors which were described with proper data and surveys conducted by the World Health
Organization. Further, in the discussion, both the perspective of the victim and perpetrator was
discussed so that a holistic assessment of the topic could be done.

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