Domestic Violence Theories: Culture of Violence Theory - Essay Example

This theory assumes that culture plays an important role in creating domestic violence. For example, in some cultures, domestic violence is very less compared to other cultures. For example, in Muslim community, domestic violence is less compared to that in Christian community because of the cultural differences. Islamic beliefs allow the male community to dominate over the female community and hence the Muslim females may not crate many problems in their families. On the other hand, according to Christian belief both males and females have equal rights in the society and hence any effort made by the male community to dominate over the female community would be resisted.

Subsequently, domestic problems and violence may arise. Culture of Violence Theory also assumes that “family and street violence are the products of an exaggerated ethos of masculinity or of machismo, characteristic of “lower class” society” (Theories of Violence). In lower class societies, domestic violence is more compared to upper class societies. For example, in African countries or culture, domestic violence incidents are more because of poverty, lack of education and poor living standards.

Family, social and cultural environment, heredity and economical factors and psychological factors can contribute to the abusive act of a person. For example, in lower class societies, children might have witnessed their parent’s illegal relationships. They may develop their personality based on such experiences. They will think that such relationships are normal and no need to refrain from such things. On the other hand, in some cases the children themselves would be the victims of sexual exploitation by their parents.

All these cultural factors can. According to the research findings it can therefore be said that domestic violence has been increased a lot and attained alarming proportions in recent times. Relationships among family members have been undergone severe damages as a result of increased domestic violence. “Guilt is usually more important than anger because guilt contributes directly to shame and low self esteem”. The feeling of guilt may often result in domestic violence in order to hide the crime from the partner or other family members.

For example, a husband with an illegal relationship with another lady may act violently if his wife asks him about that lady. He may accuse the same thing about his wife also in order to hide his illegal relationship. Environment, poor self esteem, addiction of drug or alcohol may cause domestic violence. Though, majority of the domestic violence occurs between the husband and wife in families, there are incidents in which conflicts arises in between the parents and their children also. Some of the recent reports showed that sexual abuse of children by the parents is growing all over the world.

The domestic violence may result in physical assault, mental torture or verbal torture upon the victim. In most of the domestic violence incidents, the abuser tries to establish his/her dominance over the victim. Domestic violence has lot of social and family implications. Cultural factors contribute heavily to the spreading of domestic violence in some most of the societies.