Different Concepts and Ideas on Domestic Violence Theories
Dil Bhadra Maharjan
Abstract
Domestic violence (DV) continues to be a widespread problem around the world even after years of study and intervention efforts. This is a theoretical review paper which looks at a wide range of concepts and theories that have been formulated by scholars in an attempt to understand the reasons behind domestic violence, the dynamics involved in DV, and the impact of this type of violence. These include feminist theories which look at gender inequality and patriarchy; psychological theories related to personality and cognition; sociological theories concerned with social norms; ecological theories; and biological approaches. Some key concepts examined include the cycle of violence; learned helplessness; attachment styles (fearful-avoidant, dismissive-avoidant, anxious-preoccupied, and secure); social learning theory; resource theory; exchange theory; control theory; victim blaming; exo-system variables; social isolation; reactive aggression; trauma theory; and family systems theory. This paper also examines the historical development of DV from being considered a private family problem to a social problem that needed state interference, along with significant legislative acts such as the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. A critical analysis shows that none of the theoretical frameworks provide comprehensive explanations of all cases of domestic violence. The feminist theory ignores male victims; cognitive-behavioral models fail if the perpetrator does not seek help; family system theory may lead to victim blaming; resource theory cannot explain the behavior of rich batterers; and attachment styles are hard to change. Barriers to real-world solutions include poor service integration, inadequate funding, persistent victim-blaming attitudes, legal weaknesses, and the complex reality that stopping DV demands simultaneous change across individual, family, community, and systemic levels.
Keywords: Domestic violence; theoretical frameworks; feminist theory; social learning theory; cycle of violence
Introduction
In this research paper, some theories on DV have been reviewed. The problem of DV in general is not yet solved in the modern world. The difficulties continue to worsen despite the work of numerous academic researchers, social workers and other authorities who attempt to improve the situation. It has been shown that women encounter it much more often than men do. To be more precise, substantial proportions of women report having suffered at the hands of DV in one form or another during their lifetime. It is asserted that the strategies to prevent DV or to cope with its consequences must include fortification of social and legal protection mechanisms of the country.
Feminist theory of Domestic Violence
Feminist theories of DV share in common is how gender inequality and power imbalance function as facilitating factors in the development of abusive relationships. These approaches stress the need to inquiry patriarchal values and to support battered women. The sociological theories of DV concentrate on the social and cultural factors that create abusive behavior. These analyses often stress the primacy of socialization, social norms, and the social structures that shape interpersonal relations. Psychological theories of DV tend to focus on specific characteristics and psychodynamic mechanisms of abusive behavior.
Theories of DV from a psychological perspective have often emphasized childhood experiences, personality, and mental disorder. Ecological theories of DV strongly bring into focus the need to understand the complex interaction between individuals and their environment. These often focus on the impact of cultural and community factors in abusive relationships.
Cognitive behavioural theory
Cognitive behavioural theories focus on how individuals learn and continue abusive behaviour. These perspectives emphasize that the treatment and other interventions need to be directed towards changing the thinking and actions of the abusive individuals. Psychoanalytic theories about DV focus on how unresolved unconscious impulses and conflicts are channelled into abuse. Most such theories go on to add that one cannot effect change in abusive behaviors without addressing the deeper psychological issues.
All these theories of DV are quite varied, and each one reflects a different look at such a complex social problem. With regard to the variety of points of view and approaches, deeper understanding of causes and effects of family violence could be achieved and more effective measures of prevention and treatment could be developed.
Historical Perceptive on Domestic Violence
DV has very complex and convoluted roots, with social, cultural, and legal contexts intertwined in shaping the nature in which the practice has been perceived and responded to throughout history. Quite often, DV was seen within historical contexts as a private issue that should be dealt with internally by the family or the community. In this context, victims faced very limited legal and social protections. Whereas, for example according to psychologist like Lenore E. Walker in text ‘The Battered Women’ explains that
“In fact, when interviewing battered women with our methodology, we found that in many of those relationships that originally were classified as psychological abuse only, there were incidents of physical or sexual abuse, but because there were no serious injuries, the relationships were not reported as physically abusive. In other cases, what appeared to be low-level abuse quickly escalated to physical abuse without any warning. And, in some cases where there had been physical abuse, there was the ability to stay with coercive control in frightening acute battering incidents without escalation to physical abuse.” (Walker 22).
Walker demonstrates how intertwined psychological and physical abuse is, pointing out the unpredictability of abusive dynamics. It was only through social change in the 19th and early 20th centuries that DV came to be viewed as a social problem that called for state intervention. The late 1800s saw the first criminalizing of DV in both the United States and Europe, coupled with social reformers calling for greater legal protection for victims of such crimes. But most of these early laws were limited in their scope and difficult to enforce, while many victims continued to suffer social stigma and significant barriers in seeking help.
In the second half of the 20th century, DV began to be recognized as a prevalent and serious problem. Efforts to handle the problem increased, including the emergence of the modern DV movement in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s that tried to raise public awareness of the problem, and was oriented toward obtaining both legal and social reforms. These efforts have resulted in landmark legislation like the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, which provided funding for study and prevention and intervention programs.
Today, DV is increasingly being outlined as a major social problem; the effort to prevent or confront it changes. There is increased recognition that addressing DV requires intervention into the root causes of such violence, including the social and cultural norms sustaining gender inequality and condoning abuse. And while much is yet to be achieved, a historical view of DV poignantly illustrates the need for continued efforts towards challenging conventional attitudes on behalf of social change.
Jenny Brown, (1999) has overview of Murray Bowen’s theory of family system, focused on on patterns that develop in families in order to defuse anxiety. It was noted that a central cause of anxiety in families is either being too intimate or too distant in relationships. Anxiety in any given family is a result of how far intergenerational transmission has carried external stressors and sensitivities to particular themes. Literature further noted that when members in a given family lack a capacity for reflectively processing their response to relationship issues and instead react with anxiety to perceived demands for feelings, a chronic anxiety or heightened reactivity is triggered.
The members are joined in the family so that it can be said the system should be conceptualized as an entirety rather than separately. Family system theory assumes that the focus is not to be placed on the relationship that occurs between parents and children, but rather on the family as a social system. The family is conceptualized as a social system with characteristics, norms, roles, styles of communication, and distribution of power existing separately from the individual.
The members are joined in the family so that it can be said the system should be conceptualized as an entirety rather than separately. Family system theory assumes that the focus is not to be placed on the relationship that occurs between parents and children, but rather on the family as a social system. The family is conceptualized as a social system with characteristics, norms, roles, styles of communication, and distribution of power existing separately from the individual.
Family Systems Theory
Murray Bowen’s “Family Systems Theory” is based on the assumption that no individual should be viewed in isolation but rather within the context of the relationships, interactions, and transformations that occur among family members. The strategies of assessment and intervention shift from a focus on an individual to an evaluation of the interactive patterns among all members. The basic belief of this theory is that whatever affects the family system would affect each and every member of the family, and vice-versa. Family systems theory provides a conceptual map through which one can view and understand common characteristics in human relationships, individual functioning within a nuclear family, and how emotional problems are transmitted inter-generationally, and how behavioural patterns similarly traverse generations, which is of course most relevant in attempting to understand DV. Moreover, the family system represents a subsystem of larger systems, at this point in time, the community. That interacts amongst one another, influence one another and perpetuate the continuation of certain norms of behaviour.
Social Theories of Domestic Violence
By the late 19th century, in keeping with Karl Marx and co-author Friedrich Engels, socialism was equated with anti-capitalism and a call for a post-capital system under social control instead of a system of social ownership of the means of production. Instead, many scholars came to the realization that several varying things go into DV. It was feminist studies that found women were indeed beaten by their spouses. Borrowing from this feminist philosophy, they contributed much to explain the interrelationship between patriarchy and DV. Among these social theoretical viewpoints, the study has discussed identity theory, victim blaming theory, control theory, resources theory, exo-system factor theory, social isolation theory and exchange theory to understand DV theories.
Psychological Theories
In psychological theories of DV, it is postulated that personal psychological factors, such as personality traits, cognitive processes, and mental health, create the conditions for the perpetration of DV. These theories confirm that it is not a result of social norms or economic stressors but also an outcome of internal psychological mechanisms. According to the Walker in his text “The Battered Women” mentioned that “In fact, when interviewing battered women with our methodology, we found that in many of those relationships that originally were classified as psychological abuse only, there were incidents of physical or sexual abuse, but because there were no serious injuries, the relationships were not reported as physically abusive” (Walker 22). This theory in and of itself suggests that the behavior of an abuser is premised on the need associated with a desire to attain power and control over his or her partner, that this violence cycle is being fed, and sustained through individual, social, and cultural forces.
The Development of identity theory further developed group identities, this was self-meanings as a member of different groups and person identities, which were self-meanings that defined the self as separate and unique from others.
Blaming-the-victim theory
Blaming-the-victim theory is the tendency to hold victims partially responsible for their misfortune. It is symbolic in blaming a part or full of the blame for occurrence on the account of those who have suffered due to crimes, sufferings, and other tragic happenings. Most of the theories on victim-blaming operate behind the principle that the civic responsibility of the people is to recognize risks in society and take appropriate steps to maintain an adequate level of safety. In turn, these ideologies shift all the guilt of the crime from the criminal onto the victim. Comments like “Why didn't she leave?” or “She was asking for it” are things many people say when talking about domestic abuse, violence against women, or even sexual assault. Victim blaming in the context of family violence sometimes involves blaming the victim for staying in an abusive relationship.
Control Theory
Control theory is one of the sociological theories that have been used to explain the DV phenomenon. Based on this theory, individuals will tend to act abnormally whenever their ties to the society have frayed and they feel no strong attachment either to social groups or even persons. Control theory is about the need of individual to control the acts and behavior of the whole family. The abuser or the more powerful member of the family may lead the commands and maintain the power by intimidation, isolation, Economic abuse (will be discussed in 4th Research paper), force and sexual abuse. Control theory suggests that individuals who have minimal social associations and attachments have an increased risk of violently acting against a spouse in DV situations. Indeed, study after study has found that domestic abusers often have a history of strained relationships with family and friends, and a lack of participation in social institutions such as work groups or community organizations.
Resource Theory
This theory logically relates economic stability and abuse, whereby those of a strong economic background are less likely to engage in abuse compared to those that are facing financial instability. This does not imply that abusive tendencies disappear in wealthier individuals but only that the prevalence is lower within the economic stability. Wealth of intimate partner can lead others to face economic abuse, but partner with lack of wealth may resort to physical abuse as the one option to control victim. Moreover, the high level of stress generated from poverty and unemployment may lead to more violence within families. Resource theory thus turns out to be helpful in the study of DV since it portrays how access to resources, including education, job, and social support, determines violent behavior. As Johnson notices, this is particularly relevant to “Patriarchal terrorism,” wherein men use extreme and chronic terror against their female partners to maintain their dominance and control (Johnson 285).
In the study entitled “Patriarchal Terrorism and Common Couple Violence: Two Forms of Violence Against Women” the author has identified two variants of violence such as patriarchal terrorism and common couple violence. The former involves violence perpetrated by a dominating partner and thus is commonly one-sided and very severe, whereas the latter, on the other hand, involves symmetric violent crimes of a lesser magnitude. Furthermore, Johnson also asserts that comprehension of how accessible resources influence violent behaviour may play a central role in developing efficient treatment strategies as well as preventive measures to deal with such forms of violence.
Scholars like Donald G Dutton and Tonia L Nicholls in article “The gender paradigm in domestic violence research and theory: Part 1- The conflict of theory and data” indicated that “the issue of patriarchal terrorism mainly to show that evidence for it from community samples was scant. The notion of patriarchal terrorism seems based on shelter samples that are non-representative but are nevertheless viable data sources. The question becomes whether the patriarchal terrorism profile has become a stereotype that is not representative, even of intimately violent men. The debate completely overlooked the Stets and Straus data which show female severe violence towards non-violent or minimally violent males to be more prevalent than patriarchal terrorism” (Dutton and Nicholls 704).
Resource theory in DV argues that the availability of resources like wealth, education, and employment contributes to the causation of abusive behavior. Money troubles and the stress that comes from poverty can exacerbate violence; economic stability, on the other hand, tends to reduce violence levels. However, resource disparities may cause different types of abuse, which can be economic or physical depending on the power dynamics in the relationship.
Exo-System Factor Theory
Exo-System Factor Theory is a theoretical approach that puts much stress on the relevance of contextual factors outside of the immediate relationship in making sense of DV. It insists that DV is at the mercy of factors operating at the level of the individual, microsystem, Exo-system, and macrosystem. The Exo-System level provides significant information that may explain how wider social influences impact the process of DV. The exo-system encompasses the social systems within which the individual is indirectly a participant, including but not limited to schools, the workplace, and governmental agencies. Exo-system factor theory postulates that such institutions will facilitate or impede the occurrence of DV.
One of the ways through which the exo-system influences DV is through economic stressors. It mentions that financial instability reflects a risk for DV because people may use violence as one way to make one's partner dance to their tune when they feel economically threatened that becomes particularly poignant in the present COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to the loss of jobs and thereby economic instability among many, arguably increasing the risk for Dv
Social Isolation Theory
This is a theoretical approach that focuses on how social isolation peculiarly enhances DV. The theory views most offenders of DV as tending to isolate their partner from friends, family, and other resources for support with the aim of increasing control over the victim. This may be in several forms, for example, physical isolation along with confinement to the home; emotional isolation-for example, through emotional manipulations to create distance between the victim and support systems; and financial isolation, for instance, by controlling access to money.
Exchange Theory
Exchange theory is a social theory that assumes that people display behavior based on a cost-reward analysis of the various rewards and costs emanating from their behavior. According to Nusrat Jahan and Seung Woon Kim in their article “Understanding online community participation behavior and perceived benefits: a social exchange theory perspective” states that “theory postulates that a person will continue to exchange resources with another as long as the outcome of that exchange is gratifying” (Jahan and Kim 88). Applied to DV, the theory postulates that violence arises when the benefits associated with perpetrating such an act of violence outweigh the costs.
One of the primary assumptions of exchange theory is the person's aim to maximize rewards and reduce costs. In relation to DV, this would mean that the violent actor could execute violence because he perceived that it was through this means that he could gain rewards or benefit, at least in having power and control over his partner. On the other hand, the perceived costs of violent behaviour may be minimal or dwarfed by perceived benefits; for example, the perception that the victim “deserved” the violence.
The most widely known theoretical paradigm to examine DV is the cycle of violence. According to this theory, cycles of violent behavior occur in intimate relationships. The cycle is made up of a build-up of tension phase, an acute battering incident, and a honeymoon stage.
One of the most referenced ideas on DV is that of a cycle of violence proposed by Lenore Walker. The cycle of violence according to Walker has three distinct phases happening time after time in an abusive relationship. An isolated act of violence, therefore, is not common in the case of DV; the violence becomes a pattern coming back again and again in the partnership.
Attachment Theory
Attachment theory is a psychological and sociological theory that shows early experiences provide the roots of later attachment style and relationships. According to this theory, the quality of a child's emotional development and his or her capability to form healthy relationships depend fundamentally upon the type of attachment bond he or she has with his or her main caregivers.
It has identified the following four adult attachment styles: fearful-avoidant, dismissive-avoidant, anxious-preoccupied, and secure. Individuals with a secure attachment style are capable of forming meaningful attachments and are comfortable with intimacy. The person with a dismissive-avoidant style is generally more aloof and avoids intimacy, while individuals with an anxious-preoccupied style will cling to others and seek constant reassurance. Lastly, a fearful-avoidant attachment style entails fear of closeness as well as abandonment of a person. Attachment theory has been study down the years, and therefore, its implications have had an imperative impact on clinical practice, particularly in psychotherapy and counselling fields. It allows therapists to help patients understand how early attachment experiences build up and hold current relationships and work toward developing a more secure attachment style.
Social Learning Theory
Among the most elaborated approaches to the investigation of DV, social learning theory stresses the role of environmental factors and socialization processes in shaping violent behaviour. According to this theory, people learn aggressive and violent behavior through interaction with others-most importantly, within the framework of their family and larger community. Violence, according to social learning theory, is developed and maintained through exposure to violent models and reinforcement of violence.
Scholar like Albert Bandura in text of “Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis” explained that “The social learning theory of human aggression adopts the position that man is endowed with neurophysiological mechanisms that enable him to behave aggressively, but the activation of these mechanisms depends upon appropriate stimulation and is subject to cortical control. Therefore, the specific forms that aggressive behavior takes, the frequency with which it is expressed, the situations in which it is displayed, and the specific targets selected for attack are largely determined by social experience.” (Bandura 107).
In this direction, Social Learning Theory provides the conceptual framework necessary to explain the dynamics of DV and helps in the elaboration of effective interventions for its prevention and reduction.
DV is a learned behavior enhanced through various cognitive processes. Therefore, cognitive-behavioral theories (CBT) have been used to explain it. According to theories, perpetrators of DV possibly harbor misguided ideas on who should exert authority and control in relationships and use ineffective stress managing strategies. Its interventions attempt to recognize and change these negative beliefs and attitudes through techniques like cognitive restructuring and behavioral activation among others.
Scholar like Stephanie Urso Spina mentioned in text “The Psychology of Violence and the Violence of Psychology” states that “instead of merely treating the symptoms of violence, these therapies often target changes in deeper cognitive and behavioral processes that give rise to aggressive behavior” (Spina 180). Indeed, it has been demonstrated that CBT can successfully reduce the instances of aggressive behavior amongst perpetrators of domestic abuse. Psychoeducation, cognitive reorganization, and behavioral activation are common elements of different types of CBT therapies aimed at treating DV.
Another article “Cognitive behavioural therapy for men who physically abuse their female partner” by authors Geir Smedslund et al. mentioned that “In national surveys, between 10% and 34% of women have reported being physically assaulted by an intimate male partner. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or programmes including elements of CBT are frequently used treatments for physically abusive men. Participants either enrol voluntarily or are obliged to participate by means of a court order. CBT not only seeks to change behaviour using established behavioural strategies, but also targets thinking patterns and beliefs.” (Geir Smedslund et al. 1/25).
Obviously, there are disadvantages to CBT therapies regarding DV. It can be hard to get offenders into a treatment setting as many are in denial about the severity of their actions, or unwilling to change the behavior. Practical issues such as financial shortage or no transportation also can prevent the option for getting therapy.
Behavioural Genetics
Behavioural genetics study explores the link between genetic predisposition and individual differences in behavior, including those responsible for cases of DV. This is one of most common therapeutic methods used in cases of DV because it focuses on how the attitude and belief systems of a person influence his or her behavior. As the cognitive-behavioral theory postulates, violent offenders tend to harbour mistaken conceptions of control, relationships, and power that feed their aggressiveness. Scholars like Rhee, S. H., & Waldman, I. D. in article “Genetic influences on antisocial behavior: A meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies” explains that “Though how this factor contributes to facilitating violence is not precisely known, behavioral genetic studies have determined that in some cases, violent tendencies are more apt to emerge because of a predisposing genetic influence as well” (Rhee and Waldman 495).
This highlights the complicated nature of violence, which springs from a confluence of genetic and environmental influences.
Reactive Aggression
It is a form of violent behavior described as a defensive act in response to some sort of perceived threat or provocation. Framing DV in terms of reactive aggression risks collapsing into a predictable response to perceived threats to control or dominance in intimate relationships. The cognitive behavioral approach identifies that individuals who reactively display aggression often have distorted conceptions and ways of thinking that drive their aggressive behavior. Such conceptions include a sense of entitlement to power and control in the relationship or the idea that the use of violence is an effective strategy for resolving disputes. The cognitive behavioral therapies of DV commonly focus on how to challenge and change such distorted conceptions and thinking patterns.
Learned helpless
It is a state of apathy or resignation induced when individuals feel repeatedly faced with events that they have no control over; victims of domestic abuse may report feeling learned helplessness at not being able to leave their violent relationships. It offers an explanation of learned helplessness based on the reinforcement of cognitive distortions and negative thinking patterns through the actions of an abusive partner. Victims may start to believe they are responsible for their partner's abusive behavior or they have no control over their choices or their actions that may change their lives.
Personality Theory
Personality theories of DV are pegged on the hypothesis that personality influences a condition of perpetual abusive incidents in intimate relationships. In this respect, the theory assumes that an individual possessing specific personality characteristics, including aggression, impulsivity, and lack of empathy, can easily engage in abusive behavior with an intimate partner. This section will discuss the various personality theories of DV and implications for prevention and intervention strategies.
One of the personality theories that has been applied to DV is the psychopathy theory. It refers to a personality disorder characterized by a lack of empathy, shallow emotions, and a tendency to be impulsive as well as antisocial. Study has demonstrated that psychopathic individuals are bound to commit IPV, and with more frequency as well as severity compared to non-psychopathic individuals. This is because through that theory, persons with psychopathic traits display less empathy towards their partners and, thus, derive satisfaction from the need to dominate and control the latter.
Another strategy is the formulation of interventions that nurture good attachment style in childhood and adolescence as a form of preventing abusive behavior in adulthood. An example of such programs would be those that try to enhance the relationship between parents and children, therefore encouraging secure attachment during the early childhood years. This could prevent insecure attachment from developing into IPV later on. These programs foster positive and caring relationships at such a critical time in development and therefore afford opportunities for healthy emotional connections, as well as laying the foundation for healthy future relationships, thereby reducing involvement in DV. Personality theories of DV have a lot to contribute towards understanding those underlying factors that normally contribute to the occurrence and perpetuation of abuse in intimate relationships.
Trauma Theory
Trauma theory postulates that those who have been victims of trauma-for example, physical or sexual abuse-may be using such violence in intimate relationships as a means to deal with their own unresolved traumas. It refers to the idea that violent behavior can emanate from past traumatic experiences of the abuser, usually because of childhood abuse or neglect. This theory postulates that individuals who have been traumatized may be more likely to act in an abusive manner against their partners as a way of resolving traumatic issues themselves. One of the key aspects or focuses of trauma theory is that there is a belief that DV perpetrators have experienced some type of trauma in their lives. Studies show, for instance, that subjects committing DV have highly been abused or neglected as children. It may also be manifested through various mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Trauma theory postulates that unresolved trauma subjects an individual to the vulnerability of abusive behavior against their partners.
Ecological Theories of Domestic Violence
The ecological theories on DV are broad frameworks hypothesizing that the complexities of entailing individual, relationship, community, and societal factors for DV are causal, rather than the discrete event. These bring into light the need to consider the wider context in which DV occurs, inclusive of cultural and social norms, social policies, and economic factors.
Psychoanalytic Theories of Domestic Violence
Psychoanalytic theories posit that the origin of DV lies in early experiences or unresolved issues relating to attachment and intimacy, which give rise to profound phobias and anxieties related to intimacy. These phobias and anxieties yield a strong compulsion on the part of the perpetrators of DV to exercise relationship control through violence. Its interventions aim at finding these unconscious conflicts through free associations, dream analyses, and other techniques. The most common psychoanalytic therapies employed for offenders of DV include psychodynamic psychotherapy, free association, and dream analysis. Psychodynamic psychotherapy incorporates the psychic unconscious conflict and unresolved attachment and intimacy emotions
These theories base their stances on notions such as repression of emotions, unresolved trauma, and ways in which the subconscious mind influences interpersonal relations. They bring to light how past experiences and unconscious conflicts reveal themselves as aggression or control in intimate relationships. Psychoanalytic theories of DV look for deep-seated psychological reasons behind these behaviors, which are complex and identified with the working of an internal struggle; this will, in turn, give insight into intriguing motives on the part of perpetrators. Thus, theories can be used to inform therapeutic interventions that address root causes of violent behavior. A theoretical review synthesizes overall key theories and frameworks relating to the study problem and thus establishes a foundation on how existing knowledge has evolved over time.
Conclusion
Though feminist theory may be helpful because it uncovers the root cause of the problem, namely gender inequality and patriarchy, it may not be entirely sufficient because it might overlook other elements of the problem that do not pertain to the issue of gender roles and the suffering of male victims. Cognitive-behavioural theory might prove useful because it would enable the abuser to correct his skewed perception of reality and learn anger management skills; unfortunately, this approach might fail should the abuser reject treatment or societal pressures remain unchanged. The theory of family systems may prove helpful as it concentrates on dysfunctional family dynamics, but this perspective may lead to the victim being accused of causing her abuse, and in some instances, even to the perpetrator being justified. Other social theories like those of identity, blaming the victim, control, economic strain, exo-system, isolation, and exchange may prove useful as they concentrate on society and economic conditions but neglect individual psychology.
The blame-the-victim theory offers assistance by helping to see how the victim-blame strategy leads to violence, but does not offer any solution to curbing the behaviour of the perpetrator. The control theory provides assistance by revealing how poor social connections lead to more violent acts, but fails to account for the reason why some people who lack social connections fail to be abusive. The resource theory offers assistance by demonstrating the relationship between economic stability and less abuse cases, but there are some rich abusers.
Theory of social isolation is useful in pointing out the dangers of isolating victims from help; however, the theory will not prevent the initial process of isolating victims from support systems. Theory of exchange is useful because it provides insight into how abusers continue their activities when costs are low and benefits are high; however, reducing abuse to a mere calculation overlooks the emotional elements of such behaviour. Theory of attachment is useful in explaining why individuals prone to insecure attachments tend to exhibit violent tendencies as adults; however, altering an individual’s attachment style is quite hard. Theory of social learning theory is important in illustrating how abuse is learned by modelling and reinforcement, which makes unlearning equally hard.
Learned helplessness theory is beneficial in providing insight into the reason for victims’ staying, but fails to address what causes perpetrators to act. Personality theory offers insight regarding psychopathic characteristics and low empathy in perpetrators; however, personalities are difficult to change quickly. Trauma theory provides assistance through treatment of prior injuries experienced by abusers to prevent future intergenerational abuse, but many trauma victims never abuse others. Ecological theories provide assistance in addressing the full spectrum of factors ranging from the individual level through societal, although coordination proves difficult.
In short, however, it is clear that no theory manages to explain all the causes and there are several hindrances that prevent real-life solutions from being effective; these include lack of integration between services, poor funding of preventive activities, victim blaming, legal weaknesses, and also the reality that stopping domestic violence involves individual, family, community, and systematic change at once.
Works Cited
· Bandura, Albert. Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis. Prentice Hall, 1973.
· Dutton, Donald G., and Tonia L. Nicholls. “The Gender Paradigm in Domestic Violence Research and Theory: Part 1 The Conflict of Theory and Data.” Aggression and Violent Behavior, vol. 10, no. 6, 2005, pp. 680–714.
· Jahan, Nusrat, and Seung Woon Kim. “Understanding Online Community Participation Behavior and Perceived Benefits: A Social Exchange Theory Perspective.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 26, no. 2, 2021, pp. 85–102.
· Johnson, Michael P. “Patriarchal Terrorism and Common Couple Violence: Two Forms of Violence Against Women.” Journal of Marriage and Family, vol. 57, no. 2, 1995, pp. 283–294.
· Rhee, Soo Hyun, and Irwin D. Waldman. “Genetic Influences on Antisocial Behavior: A Meta-Analysis of Twin and Adoption Studies.” Psychological Bulletin, vol. 128, no. 3, 2002, pp. 490–529.
· Smedslund, Geir, et al. “Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Men Who Physically Abuse Their Female Partner.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, no. 2, 2011, Art. No. CD006048.
· Walker, Lenore E. The Battered Woman. Harper & Row, 1979.
