A CRITICAL REVIEW OF FACTORS INFLUENCING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN BENIN AND THE SOCIAL WORK IMPLICATIONS

ABSTRACT

The study examined factors influencing domestic violence against women in Benin City and the social work implication. The objective of the study was to examine whether ethnicity and religion leads to domestic violence against women in Benin City; know if educational attainment and economic conditions leads to domestic violence against women in Benin city; investigate whether domestic violence against women is prevalent in in Benin City; examine the social work implications of domestic violence against women in Benin City  and to find out the possible solutions that would help reduce do domestic violence in  Benin City. The cross sectional research design was adopted for this study. 384 copies of questionnaire were distributed to respondents in Oredo LGA, Benin City. Data collected were analyzed using frequency count, percentages, and mean with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 24.0.  The empirical result showed that the respondents agreed that violence against intimate partners frequently occur among married couples; that economic climate and employment conditions can often lead to domestic violence if not handled with care.  The study recommend that appropriate laws and policies should be made at the state level to address domestic violence and that the government needs to educate and sensitize community members to shun cultural practices that support wife beating and come up with the laws that can punish perpetrators.