Perceptions of domestic violence among men and women in Kanungu Town Council, Kanungu District

Abstract

Domestic violence poses serious mental and physical health risks. In order to understand domestic violence, one needs to understand the social context in which it occurs so as to find culturally competent methods of addressing domestic violence and to design and deliver relevant public education to its perpetrators and survivors. This qualitative study with a case study design explored the perceptions of domestic violence among men and women in Kanungu Town Council Kanungu District with the aim to understand possible causes, consequences in Kanungu Town Council Kanungu District and ways in which it was being addressed. I conducted individual face-to-face in-depth interviews with twelve purposively selected men and women as primary participants. In addition, three key informant interviews were conducted with the Community Development Officer, Parish Chief, and Police Officer in the Family and Child Protection Unit. The participants were selected by the use of purposive sampling techniques. The study findings indicate that in Kanungu Town Council, domestic violence was conceptualized broadly to include vices such as family or conflicts between a man and woman and children, fights etc. The perceived causes of domestic violence in Kanungu Town Council were political differences, late coming at home by women from markets, alcoholism, adultery especially on market days women spend much time and husbands suspect them and during harvesting period men sell sorghum, millet to go and drink. In addition, the perceived consequences of domestic violence in Kanungu Town Council were imprisonment of perpetrators of domestic violence, sustaining temporary or permanent injuries, loss of lives, low levels of development and education, loss of family social cohesion and loss of respect in the community resulting from family separation. These findings imply the need to educate the community to prevent domestic violence and also to offer timely services such as counselling to both survivors and perpetrators of this social problem in Kanungu Town Council, Kanungu district.