Analysis of the Factors Leading To Increasing Prevalence of Domestic Violence in Uganda: A Case Study of Namayumba Sub-County, Wakiso District

Abstract

This research study was mainly aimed at finding out the different factors leading to increasing prevalence of domestic violence in Uganda using Namayumba sub-county, Wakiso district as the case study. The study aimed at achieving different objectives including finding social and economic factors influencing domestic violence as well as finding out the strategies that can be used to minimize domestic violence in Uganda. The study was based on both quantitative and qualitative measurements. Data was collected by the use of questionnaires, a sample size of 370 people from a population of 12,736 people was used and this was selected using the Krejcie & Morgan table. Data was analyzed using SPSS and the results were presented in terms of frequencies and percentages using tables and graphs. Among the major findings, domestic violence was mainly found to be caused by substances abuse as a social factor influencing domestic violence as represented by 287 (95.7%) and 13 (4.3%) for agree and strongly agreed respectively, and Economic recession/ poverty was highlighted by a great number of respondents 115 (38.3%) and 129 (43%) who agreed and strongly agreed respectively that it is an economic factor influencing domestic violence. Among the strategies for minimizing domestic violence respondents agreed that prevention programs, scaling up the most promising ones, and studying how well they work may help in eliminating the problem of domestic violence could be among the effective strategies. Consequently the study concluded that strategies that have the ability to handle economic factors influencing violence such as making women financially or economically independent may also reduce the social problem of domestic violence. The study recommends that policy makers have ensure that strategies aim at changing the different factors and structural determinants of domestic violence. Finally additional research should be conducted in relation to the socio-cultural variables such as ethnic groupings, religious beliefs as well as other crucial information related to the unique characteristics of the community needs to be taken into account in order to provide helpful insights into the country’s profile of domestic violence.