Domestic Violence

Many people consider domestic violence a minor social issue and do not suppose that criminal justice should develop any solutions to it. However, the scale of the problem is significant. Domestic violence, often called intimate partner violence (IPV), is actively discussed by modern social and criminal justice scholars. There is an abundance of statistical data on IPV: In November 2014 the World Health Organization estimated that 35% of all women have experienced either intimate partner violence or sexual violence by a non-partner during their lifetimes. It is obvious that there has been active research on IPV.

The problem of domestic violence plays a significant role in criminal justice system due to its possible consequences. Kaur & Garg write that batterers cost nations fortunes in terms of law enforcement, health care, lost labor and general progress in development. These issues are not private. IPV faced by a number of families may affect the well-being of the entire nation.

Literature Review

The analyzed articles devoted to IPV consider a range of common themes with some of the materials focusing on separate aspects of domestic abuse. Wihbey and Kaur & Garg define the term of domestic abuse or IPV and give some statistical data on the issue. However, Wihbeys research is mostly focused on the causes of IPV, while Kaur & Garg investigate health implications of domestic violence. Alejo continues to develop this topic and discusses the long-term physical and emotional impacts of domestic violence. Kreager, Felson, Warner, & Wenger aimed at establishing the connection between the level of womens education and the number of divorces in the marriages where IPV is detected. Jackson et al. have chosen a sample of Mexican American women to study the revelations of IPV before and during pregnancy. Therefore, the authors individual views on the topic of IPV and specifically investigated aspects contributed to better understanding of the problem.

A mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods helped the authors perform a high-quality research. Individual interviews as a qualitative method provided Kreager et al. with some additional information about the survey answers of the respondents. A survey as a qualitative method performed in India assisted Kaur & Garg  in evaluating the scale of the issue in the state. However, it is possible to distinguish some flaws in both types of methods too. Kaur & Garg recognize that it was complicated for them to distinguish between chronic IPV and domestic violence caused before and during pregnancy. As a result, the statistical analysis of the received results was inaccurate too.

Methodology

All the analyzed materials reveal the results received by using very distinct and proven methods. It is possible to determine the correlation between the research design and the applied methods on the example of the article written by Kreager et al. The authors used a cohort study: We restricted the sample of 1,394 married women in five additional ways. These additional ways refer to accurate characteristics of the marriages (their beginning, length, termination, and others). The research design of a big cohort study was informed by the used methodology, namely the surveys, the applied descriptive statistics, and the Cox model. The selected design and methods properly worked together.

Kreager and his team did everything possible to prove the validity of their investigations. The researchers documented and discussed all their procedures in detail. The researchers studied a direct connection between a victimized partner and her level of education and performed a supplementary analysis taking into consideration the character of the used IPV, whether similar patterns are followed by men, and others. The main ethical considerations in conducting the research in this particular field are the fact that many victims of IPV prefer to preserve their confidentiality and are afraid to reveal some details of their sad experience.

Research Question

As it is clear from the literature review section, it is possible to formulate numerous questions related to IPV. However, one of the aspects of domestic violence is worth a special attention, namely What factors force women to stay in the abusive relationship? When this question is answered, it will be easier to formulate and develop some effective strategies to fight IPV. It is true that the main cause which makes females stay in such a relationship is economic dependence on their husbands. However, it is worth better analyzing this aspect because the level of womens earnings is very important for the stability of a marriage. The formulated research question will address the limitations elated to the fact that men are the victims of IPV too: The gender symmetry

theory of domestic violence, however, states that women are just as likely as men to be violent. Therefore, the factors which make men stay in such a family should be analyzed too.

The most appropriate criminological theory which can explain why husbands and sometimes wives behave as domestic abusers is biosocial. The environmental factors of poverty and economic status as well as the manner of behavior may be the causes for people of both genders to apply to IPV. Jackson et al. gave some specific attention to numerous environmental and cultural factors related to immigration, which increased the risk of IPV in Mexican American females, namely language barriers, discrimination, immigration concerns, and obtaining quality employment, education, and healthcare. It is possible to use some aspects of a psychoanalytic theory when the explanations of the abusers behavior can be found in his or her individual psychological peculiarities.

Conclusions and Future Direction

It is possible to make some conclusions based on the performed research. As it is stated above, the topic of IPV covers many aspects. The following patterns can be distinguished in the researched issue:

• the victims of domestic violence can be the representatives of both sexes;
• the main reason why females stay in an abusive relationship, is their fear to live in poverty without their husbands;
• there is a direct negative correlation between the educational level of a female and the duration of her marriage in which she stays a victim;
• the research performed on the sample of Mexican American women proved that their educational, employment, and cultural levels directly related to the revelations of IPV before or during pregnancy. On the basis of the enumerated patterns and in regards of my research question, it is possible to conclude that financial reasons, lack of education, and cultural assimilation may cause IPV.

I used a scientific method with the purpose not to project my own assumptions on the empirical evidence. All my conclusions are made on the basis of summarizing the results of the considered investigations and applying qualitative and quantitative tools. A new approach which can be used to continue the research of the given topic is to apply small cohort studies in different countries and summarize the received results. The theoretical implications of my investigation are important because according to my conclusions it is possible to develop some effective strategies to fight IPV. As it is stated in the paper, the future direction of my research should be domestic violence applied to men and the issues which force them to stay in such a relationship. This information will assist in solving the issue of IPV related to both sexes.