Essay on Socioeconomic and Psychological Factors in Domestic Violence

This essay delves into the multifaceted issue of domestic violence, examining the intricate interplay of socioeconomic and psychological factors that contribute to its prevalence. The assignment begins by defining domestic violence and highlighting its various forms, including social, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and acknowledges the negative impact on mental health. The essay then explores various psychological factors such as the perpetrators' need for control due to low self-esteem, jealousy, difficulty regulating anger, and feelings of inferiority. It further explores the influence of traditional beliefs, personality disorders, and the cycle of abuse, where children witnessing violence grow up to become perpetrators or victims. Socioeconomic factors discussed include cultural traditions, unemployment, financial issues, workplace problems, and humiliation, all of which can trigger violence. The essay also addresses the mental health consequences for victims, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for healthcare professionals to recognize and effectively address domestic violence, providing appropriate care and support to those affected. The essay includes references to international and Australian sources.

Running head: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Domestic violence can be described as the violence that is conducted by the perpetrator
on the violence in order to gain power as well as control over a partner, spouse as well as
intimate family members that might even extend to older members of the house. Different types
of domestic violence can be noticed which includes social, physical, sexual as well as emotional.
Recent researchers are also of the opinion that victims of the domestic violence tend to develop
poorer mental health conditions that adds to their suffering leading them to live poor quality life
(Berns, 2017). Therefore, this assignment will mainly show the different socio-economic factors
as well as the psychological factors that influences domestic violence.
Domestic violence can take place when one of the partner believers that he or she has the
right to control and dominate the other in the relationship. Often researchers are of the opinion
that abusers might feel the need for controlling their partners and this is mainly because of the
lower-esteem, extreme jealousy (Johnson, 2016). Even many individuals face difficulty in
regulating as well as controlling their anger and other stronger emotions. Sometimes many of the
perpetrators feel inferior to their partner in academic as well as the socioeconomic domains. All
these increase the chances of domestic violence of the perpetrators on the victims.
Apart from the complicated psychological factors that had been mentioned in the above
paragraph, other factors also are present that result in abuses on the victims. Many perpetrators
possess highly traditional feelings. Such people believe that they have the right to control their
partners. Many partners tend to believe that women are not equal to man and they can never
tolerate any activities of women that ensure their maintenance of freedom. Researchers have also
provided studies that sometimes the perpetrators might be having certain forms of undiagnosed
personality disorder or any other kind of psychological disorders (Sherman & Harris, 2015).
There are many situations where the perpetrators develop their behaviors as they have grown up

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in the households where domestic violence incidents were frequent and that such domestic
violence were accepted by the victims.
Many researchers have focused on the cycle of abuse that affects the psychological
development of many children as they grow up. This tends to convert the innocent children of
the present into the merciless perpetrators of the future. It is seen that children who witness or
become the victims of violence might develop a feeling that violence is indeed one of the
reasonable ways for resolving conflicts between the people. Boys might learn that women are not
to be valued or respected and this might make them grow up as individuals who tend to abuse
their partners or their wives (Anderberg et al., 2016). There are also instances that show that girls
who witness domestic violence in their families of origin are more likely to be victimized by
their own husbands. They tend to develop a psychology that such behaviors and treatments are
acceptable as they gradually grow up and these tend to affect their future lives as well. They tend
to continue tolerating and accepting abusive behavior of their husbands or partners and never
tend to report it to the police. However, researchers are of the opinion that although women are
more frequently the victims of domestic violence but the gender riles can also reversed
sometimes.
Many of the studies have been selected which displayed some of the common
psychological traits that are present in more than one journal papers. One of the common
psychology was that - use of violence as well as the abusive tactics that used to work in solving
different problems for them in the past were used to fulfill the demands in every of the
relationship in the present (Roberts, Chamberlain & Delfabbro, 2015). They continue to do so
until no one stops them or reports them to the authority. There are also studies that suggest that

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genetic predisposition also plays important role in the development of the abusive traits but
evidences of this claim is not that high and not enough papers are available.
Often many societal factors can also result in occurrence of events of domestic violence
in the families. There are many families and cultures in the society who tends to follow their
traditional beliefs. Such beliefs are seen to endure that women have the social position beneath a
man both in status as well as in the personhood. Such traditional beliefs prevailing in the culture
make domestic violence inevitable increasing the numbers of domestic violence in the society
(Root & Brown, 2014).
Alcohol as well as drugs is also seen to be a higher contributor to the violent behaviors
among the perpetrators. A dunk people are less likely to control his or her violent impulses
towards their partner. Therefore, researchers are of the opinion that individuals need to keep such
negative behaviors to a minimum level. This would help in the reduction of the chances of
occurrence of domestic violence on the family members. It is very much important to understand
the different associative factor that enhances the alcohol and drinking behaviors (Theobald,
Murray & Smart, 2017). Often protracted periods of unemployment had been one of the main
causes that results in domestic violence. Such long periods of unemployment might result in the
financial issues that may affect the mental health condition of the perpetrators making them
stressed and agitated. This might result in spending stressful days for long resulting in emotional
turmoil, this creates situations where they tend to lose their patience, and their frustrations are
released out on their partners in the form of domestic violence (Roberts, 2018).
Other factors that had also been noted by the professional researchers are that often
certain individuals are seen to become desperate when their partners threaten to leave them

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because of various factors. There had been many evidences of domestic abuse of the victims due
to the humiliation faced by the perpetrators at their organizations or places of work as well as
due to other perceived failures in life like loss at business, ventures and many others (Straus et
al., 2017). Anger created due to jealousy or envy on other people in the society might also get
released out as frustrations within the houses resulting in domestic violence. There had been
many cases where spouses have reported that they had tried to prevent their husbands from
unethical practices in the society that would result in negative outcome. Another form of abuse
often takes place when caregivers fail to take on the stress, pressure and responsibility of caring
for the disabled persons or blind-mute-deaf persons and out of sheer frustrations, the caregivers
become the perpetrators affecting the care receivers (McPhedran, Gover & Mazerolle, 2017).
Mental healths of the victims are affected due to domestic violence conducted by the
perpetrators. The persons who have experienced a physical as well as sexual assault might feel
many emotions like fear, confusion, being numb, anger, and many others. Even victims are seen
to feel guilty or shameful of being abused. They are seen to cover up or provide excuses for their
bruises. Some of the long-term mental health conditions that result from domestic violence are
the posttraumatic disorders (Mulayim, Jackson & Lai, 2016). Researchers are of the opinion that
depression and anxiety tend to be associated with most of the victims who have gone through
phases of domestic violence. Substance abuses are also seen to be taken up by women as they try
to cope up with the trauma by having drugs, smoking, drinking of alcohol as well as overeating.
Therefore, the nursing health professionals providing mental healthcare to patients should be
aware of these facts in order to ensure safe and effective quality care to the patients (Bates et al.,
2017).

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From the above discussion, it becomes common that different psychological factors like
growing up seeing violence at home, accepting violence as a just way of treating women,
complex issues with partner, experiencing right to control partners and many others can result
the perpetrators to abuse the victims. Moreover socio-economic factors like cultural traditions,
loss of job and unemployment, financial issues, issues faced at workplace, humiliation outside
houses and many others might make the perpetrators take out their frustration on the victims by
abusing them. Such domestic violence events have massive mental health impacts on the victims
making them involved in substance abuse; suffer from depression, anxiety and posttraumatic
stress disorders and others. Therefore, it is the duty of the healthcare professionals to correctly
recognize and report them along with providing effective care to the patients.

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References:
Anderberg, D., Rainer, H., Wadsworth, J., & Wilson, T. (2016). Unemployment and
domestic violence: Theory and evidence. The Economic Journal, 126(597), 1947-
1979.
Bates, E. A., Graham-Kevan, N., Bolam, L. T., & Thornton, A. J. (2017). A review of
domestic violence perpetrator programs in the United Kingdom. Partner abuse, 8(1),
3-46.
Berns, N. S. (2017). Framing the victim: Domestic violence, media, and social problems.
Routledge.
Johnson, M. P. (2016). Confl ict and Control: Symmetry and Asymmetry in Domestic
Violence. In Couples in conflict (pp. 125-134). Routledge.
McPhedran, S., Gover, A. R., & Mazerolle, P. (2017). A cross-national comparison of police
attitudes about domestic violence: a focus on gender. Policing: An International
Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 40(2), 214-227.
Mulayim, S., Jackson, M., & Lai, M. (2016). 10 Domestic violence in Australia. Domestic
Violence in International Context, 27, 165.
Roberts, D., Chamberlain, P., & Delfabbro, P. (2015). Women's experiences of the processes
associated with the family court of Australia in the context of domestic violence: A
thematic analysis. Psychiatry, psychology and law, 22(4), 599-615.
Roberts, D. C. (2018). Child contact, domestic violence, and family law in
Australia (Doctoral dissertation).

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Root, M. P., & Brown, L. (2014). An analysis of domestic violence in Asian American
communities: A multicultural approach to counseling. In Diversity and complexity in
feminist therapy (pp. 143-164). Routledge.
Sherman, L. W., & Harris, H. M. (2015). Increased death rates of domestic violence victims
from arresting vs. warning suspects in the Milwaukee Domestic Violence Experiment
(MilDVE). Journal of experimental criminology, 11(1), 1-20.
Straus, M. A., Gelles, R. J., & Steinmetz, S. K. (2017). Behind closed doors: Violence in the
American family. Routledge.
Theobald, J., Murray, S., & Smart, J. (2017). From the margins to the mainstream: the
domestic violence services movement in Victoria, Australia, 1974-2016. Melbourne
University Press.