The role of unequal power relations in directing family violence

Abstract

The research deals with the role of one of the important issues related to the structure of marital relations within the family, within the framework of studying the role of power relations as a pattern of unequal relations between spouses in directing domestic violence directed by both spouses. The researcher adopts the descriptive analytical approach in studying the research problem by defining the research community in the city of Sulaymaniyah and the research sample of 35 respondents distributed into seven focus groups. The researcher determined the method of focus groups for qualitative research to collect information related to the research topic.

                It has been concluded that, there is a relationship between each of the differences (the age of the spouses, the social background between the spouses, the standard of living and the level of income, and the vision of the spouses of life in directing family violence). Besides, the psychological violence is the dominant violence compared to the rest of the patterns of family violence when there is a difference in the age between the spouses. In addition to the fact that, social violence is more prevalent than psychological violence as a result of the difference between the spouses in their vision of life, through the difference in the scientific and cultural level between the spouses. Eventually, psychological violence with its continuous repercussions on the relationship of the spouses is due to the difference in age between the spouses.