WHO PERPETRATES VIOLENCE ON OWN SPOUSES? EVIDENCE FROM INDIA

Abstract

Perpetration of violence by men on their spouses is taking place around the world while a general understanding of the underlying precipitating factors for this violence remains limited and significant knowledge about its root causes is lacking. It is very important to understand the version of spouse violence from the perpetrator’s perspectives too in order to have a complete comprehension of this violence and their violent behavior. A 24 item Men’s Childhood Experience of Gender Inequity Scale [MCE-GE] and an 18 item Men’s Childhood Experience of Violence Scale [MCE-V] are developed as part of this study as there were no cultural context tools available to assess these variables. In order to find out whether their childhood gender inequity attitude and violence experiences bear any impact on the prevalence of spouse violence of men, a study in multiple sites representing a range of gender equality and development indices within Gujarat, India is conducted and the findings indicate that there are very strong statistically significant links between childhood violence experiences and the perpetration of violence against women in adulthood, and this cycle of violence is facilitated and fuelled by the perpetrators’ childhood gender inequity experiences.