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Domestic Violence And Its Effects On The Health

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What is Domestic Violence?

Radford and Heister (2006:7) define domestic violence as the coercive control of an adult by an intimate partner, involving physical, sexual, emotional, psychological or financial abuse. Domestic violence against women is a global problem without geographic, religious, social, economic, cultural or national boundaries (Women’s Aid, 2005). According to Chitashvili et al (2010) violence against women is seen as a social problem with detrimental effects on the health and well-being of the victim and the people around. Women who are victims of domestic violence are deprived of their right to participate in societal life and are held prisoners under special conditions put by the immediate social setting such as family, social norms and values shared by the majority (Karanja, 2003). According to Harne and Radford (2008) domestic violence before the 20th century was an acceptable social order in male dominant cultures, approved and justified in their customs and traditions but today feminists movements are fighting for the rights of women and have managed to bring the issue of domestic violence into the public domain. .

Domestic violence is the most common form of violence against women and is seen (Denmark, 2013:80) as a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women which have led to the suppression of women by men. According to McCue (2008:3) domestic violence many at times starts as an isolated abusive incident, but

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