RISK AND CONTRIBUTING FACTORS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN- A REVIEW

Separate areas of research have investigated the risk factors for partner violence, sexual assault, emotional abuse, and stalking. Little is known about risk factors for stalking or emotional abuse. Because there is so much overlap among the risk factors for sexual and physical assault by intimate partners, they are discussed together. There is a strong consensus that there is no single risk factor for violence against women. Rather, researchers have learned that a number of factors may increase the likelihood that a woman will be victimized. Because there are numerous risk factors, an ecological framework has been adopted for organizing the different factors that are nested within one another. Some explanations for violence look to socio cultural risk factors characteristics of society that promote social tolerance of violence. In contrast, social structural risk factors include social and economic factors that increase the probability of involvement in violence. Family risk factors include relationship characteristics that are related to violence. The risk markers that have been most studied are those that pertain to individuals both perpetrators and victims.