Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / The right for every woman to live free of violence is one of the basic human rights. Nevertheless, this right is still subject to violation on a massive and systematic scale around the world. At least one of three women around the world has reported been physical, sexual and emotional abuse by an intimate partner in her lifetime. Although, gender inequalities and discrimination are considered as the underlying factors of domestic violence, little is known about the contributions of the presence of sons and daughters at home, age, gender, education, marital status, working status, place of residence. Despite the fact that recommendations have been made both at the international and national levels to reduce intimate female abuse, the issue is still rampant in developing countries. The aim of this study was to identify and compare the impact of women’s socio-economic and demographic characteristics on domestic violence across seven countries (Cameroon, Ghana, Haiti, Liberia, Moldova, Nepal and Philippines). Frequencies and bivariate analyses were performed using the latest Demographic Health Surveys from 2005 to 2011. The findings established that on average 33.37 percent of women across the seven countries are abused. Domestic violence is a high concern in Cameroon. The educational level still remains a predicting factor of domestic violence across the countries under investigation except in Liberia. The number of living children was also identified as a predicting factor across the studied countries. Finally, a woman having a son or a daughter at home is more likely to expose the woman to intimate violence in Cameroon, Haiti, Moldova, Nepal and Philippines. All the countries are entrenched in a culture of male domination whereby women lack the freedom to decide on marital issues. As a recommendation, the government of each of the studied countries should be more proactive in reinforcing judicial system, policies and education that will help to curb the scourge of domestic violence. Furthermore, improving the level of literacy for women and educating men as the perpetrators of domestic violence will go a long way in abating this social ill.

Sexuality is one of the most central elements of human existence. Throughout history, attacks on women have been common during armed conflict. Frequently military forces have viewed sexual violence as a spoil of war, a punishment to defeated populations, or as the deviance of rogue soldiers. However, there are conflicts in which sexual violence is used as a weapon. In these conflicts, sexual violence evolves from a facet of conflict to genocide. When a military force’s command utilizes systematic and widespread sexual violence as a weapon of war, in both intent and effect, it fulfills every condition of the Geneva Convention standards of genocide. Three cases are analyzed within this thesis: Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship, Rwanda during its genocide, and Bosnia during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Motivations for each of the conflicts varied. However, the constant in all three conflicts was the intended elimination of a specific group and the implementation of a policy of sexual violence in order to do so. In order for crimes to be considered genocide they must fulfill one of the following conditions, as stated in Article 2 of the Geneva Conventions, any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: A. Killing members of the group; B. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; C. Deliberately inflicting on the group the conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; D. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; E. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Egregious acts of sexual violence and torture were utilized by all three respective commands in order to murder, incur grievous mental and physical harms, destroy the group’s ability to procreate in the future and impose measures upon the group intended to bring about its end. This work demonstrates that irrespective of the cause of a conflict, when systematic and widespread sexual violence is used as a weapon of war, it is genocide.

Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) integrates symptoms common to victims of "complex" traumas, like childhood physical or sexual abuse, with the diagnostic criteria of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It was hypothesized that a history of witnessing interparental violence would be related to adulthood CPTSD symptoms. Results from hierarchical multiple regressions with 287 college students showed that witnessing interparental violence and experiencing child physical abuse predicted higher levels of CPTSD, PTSD, and depression symptoms. After controlling for child abuse, witnessing interparental violence predicted higher levels of traditional PTSD symptoms, but it did not predict an increase in overall CPTSD symptom severity or depression. Results suggest that the traditional PTSD construct, rather than CPTSD, best accounts for the symptoms of those who witnessed interparental violence in childhood.

Against the background of a history of apartheid and colonialism, high levels of unemployment, an established tradition of hegemonic masculinity, pervasive violence, especially gender-based violence, as well as some of the highest levels of inequality in the world, this mini-dissertation focuses on the accounts of a cross-class selection of African women who live in South Africa and who self-identify as being in a relationship with an abusive intimate partner. It is based on eight in depth interviews with women, many of whom are immigrants or migrants from elsewhere on the continent, and all of whom are either married or in long-term relationships with their partners and have children. The study focused on the factors that impacted on their decision to stay on in the abusive relationship as well as on their internal thoughts and how these illuminate their decision to stay. In particular, the study explores how to make sense of the notion of 'agency' when considering women who stay on in an abusive relationship, and draws on the work of Margaret Archer on reflexivity and internal thoughts, as distinct from and in addition to a Bourdieusian focus on habitus and a structural analysis of the social context in which the abuse takes place and of factors that impede participants’ ability to leave the abusive relationship. The study identifies the key factors women cite as playing a role in their decision to stay, namely fear of violence; a concern with providing a 'home' for children; cultural considerations and family pressures; and structural factors (finance, migration status, employment status and a lack of adequate support structures). In addition, one of the major contributions of this study is its focus on the participants' self-described internal thought processes to consider to what extent these processes could be described as demonstrative of or enabling 'agency' in difficult circumstances. / Mini-dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / tm2015 / Sociology / MSocSci / Unrestricted

A review of the related literature sets the criteria for development and implementation for this violence prevention program. Specifically the project concentrates on needs assessment, project development and implementation, teacher inclusion and in-service, life experiences, long term commitment and incentives. Also included as part of this anti-violence project are teacher surveys, lesson plans, sample schedules, and evaluation forms for needs assessment evaluation.

Thesis (M.A. (Psychology)) --University of Limpopo, 2015 / The aim of the study was to explore the psychological profiles of perpetrators of domestic violence as represented in newspaper articles. An archival research approach was chosen as the appropriate design for the present study. The researcher accessed and studied all newspaper articles from two daily newspapers reporting on domestic violence over a two-year period (that is, from January 2011 up to December 2012). A total of 98 newspaper articles (sixty from the Sowetan newspaper, and 38 thirty eight from the Daily Sun newspaper) covering the period under review were retrieved. The data was captured on a self-developed data record sheet. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data. The results were analysed and presented using frequency tables, descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations. The results of the study showed that the majority of the victims of domestic violence were women with little education and skills. Assault, attempted murder and murder were found to be the forms of violence perpetrated against the victims. The majority of the perpetrators (70.4%) were males, with higher education and skills. Some of the perpetrators were represented in the newspaper articles as being emotionally troubled (69.4%), passively aggressive (11.2%), mentally disturbed (5.1%) and socially deviant (3.1%). The majority of the mental health problems that were associated with the perpetrators of domestic violence included depression, borderline personality and acute psychosis. A number of triggers were found to lead to domestic violence. These included family arguments, jealousy, substance abuse, and criminal behaviour. Based on the above results, the study is concluded by recommending anger and stress management as some of the programmes that the government could introduce to minimise domestic violence.

In the past decade, the increasing prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and domestic violence (DV) on college and university campuses has been given considerable attention. This abuse, including physical, sexual, emotional, and coercive control, often leads to impairment in victims (Ross, 2017; Straus, Gelles & Steinmetz). While the overall rates of IPV and DV have been relatively well-studied on college campuses, the differential impact of survivor-offender relationship on type of abuse has not been fully examined. As a result, there may be important correlates between survivor-offender relationship and the nature of abusive acts. Data for this project were obtained from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s online incident-based reporting system. Reported incidents of DV/IPV in 2017 were examined in the current analysis with variables divided by survivor-offender relationship and type of abuse. Survivor- offender relationship included intimate, acquaintance, stranger, and family, while types of abuse included kidnapping, incest, forcible rape and statutory rape, aggravated assault, simple assault, murder, intimidation stalking, forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object, and forcible fondling. A preliminary χ2 16 x 4 contingency table illustrated a significant difference between survivor-offender relationship and type of abuse χ2(33) = 185.43, p <.001, with a significant difference between relationship and offense types. Further analyses indicated higher rates of simple assault in intimate relationships compared to acquaintances and forcible rape proving more evident in acquaintances compared to intimate relationships. Interestingly, intimidation was higher in African Americans acquaintances compared to Caucasian individuals’ where intimidation was more evident in intimate relationships. Further analyses will investigate specific racial and ethnic breakdowns, gender considerations, and the influence and possession of a firearm. To our knowledge, this area of research on college campuses has not examined the lethality and influence of a firearm, types of injury, and the survivor-offender relationship. Few have theorized regarding DV/IPV and survivor-offender relationship and type of abuse, but the current findings are similar to research regarding characteristics of sexual assault survivors who present to the emergency room. For example, Logan, Cole and Capillo (2007) discovered that there is a difference in injury patterns depending on the survivor-offender relationship. With domestic violence being insidiously pervasive, this topic necessitates investigation due to research suggesting there are differences in mental health outcomes based on injuries sustained, and certain assault characteristics depending on the survivor-offender relationship (Culbertson & Dehle, 2001). Implications of the current study will be further discussed.

Currently, sexual assault is characterized as the primary threat to women’s safety on university campuses. Accordingly, many post-secondary institutions in Canada have developed specialized policies, resources, and prevention strategies to address this form of gendered violence. Although a serious concern, the narrow focus ignores university students’ vulnerability to multiple other forms of gendered violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV). In an effort to address this neglected topic, this thesis explores the way five university students experienced and navigated IPV. Adopting an intersectional lens informed by feminist work on gender roles, gendered expectations, and sexual scripts as well as Pierre Bourdieu’s work on class, this thesis examines how gender oppression and class privilege intersect to create unique experiences of IPV for university students. To that end five semi-structured interviews were conducted with women who suffered psychological, physical, sexual, and/or financial abuse while in university. The interviews facilitated open and honest dialogue whilst providing this research project with valuable insight into how IPV plays out among class privileged university students. The thesis concludes that although the participants are oppressed in terms of gender (and susceptible to IPV on this basis) their class privilege also conditioned their experiences of IPV. While affording them access to social and economic resources, the disjuncture between their self-identity as educated, smart, and independent women inhibited their ability to accept their identity as victims; as a result, the participants struggled to disclose, seek help, and address the abuse.

No description available.

Domestic violence is now better be addressed as a global issue rather than just a family or regional problem. This research study has focused on highlighting the factors that contribute to the ceaseless occurrence of domestic violence. Besides, it concentrates on the consequences that might take place due to the various forms of domestic violence. As domestic violence has exceeded the boundary of just being an indoor personal matter, it must be dealt with precise assistance provided by the law and judicial authorities. Women should be respected and valued by all means as well as their choices and decisions have to be prioritized by men. Even if the acts of vicious domestic violence can't be eliminated overnight, the measures aiding abolition of domestic violence ought to be taken inevitably. As a whole, we must not forget that a healthy moralistic surrounding or environment can also play a significant role to combat domestic violence.