Abstract
From all reported cases of domestic violence against women in Ernakulam district, Kerala (1998-2000), a random selection of cases was made from each of the major categories, i.e., violence due to alcoholism, due to insufficient dowry, frustration due to economic difficulties, violence due to extra-martial affairs, and due to personality disorders. Most of the wife-abusers were in the daily-wage category, and alcoholism and insufficient money were the most frequently cited causes. Spending on alcohol, it appears, leads to lack of money and wife torture as a means of ventilating frustration. Insufficient dowry also seems to be linked up to this nexus. More generally, the study documents how, though one cause may be a major one, a multiciplicity of factors are at work. The perpetrators were commonly found to be normal people, though domestic violence could be considerably aggravated by mental disorders. All victims were physically abused, but they were least abused when economic factors were the principal cause. All suffered psychological violence as well. Of the 25 victims in the survey, three attempted suicide and 12 contemplated doing so. Overall, the victims appear to have taken pains to see that the stressful situations they were in did not affect their relationships with their children or their children's education.
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