Violence against women is a multi-dimensional and complex social problem. A wide range of theoretical approaches over the years have tried to explain the complexity. Some integrated ecological models for understanding the etiology of the issue suggest that complex array of interconnected factors across the community, relationships, individuals, and macro-social levels influence intimate partner violence ( Fulu & Stephanie, 2015) . Although the models still inform and inspire, globalization has shifted the world within which they are realized. Globalization is a contradictory and complex issue on women especially in areas of security, livelihood, labor, state, sexuality, and household. Solutions to the issue of violence against women require reformulation of human understanding and the models used to inform analysis and respond to the issue. The drivers of the issue do not stop at national borders, and an overarching global model must be incorporated into ecological models. The incorporation would systematically link the trends in globalization with the rest of the models to increase understanding of how the issue would occur in today's world ( Fulu & Stephanie, 2015) .
Violence against women is a significant social and health concern impacting virtually all societies but goes unreported and unrecognized. The issue in most nations is still accepted as part of normal conduct. The forms and manifestations of violence vary in various settings, but most of the issue takes place within families ( Krantz, 2016) . The perpetrators of the issue are exclusively men who have been or are in close relationship with the victim. Violence against women has been estimated globally as a serious mortality cause as cancer and a greater cause of ill-health than a combination of malaria and accidents. The issue is one of the major cause of mental health disorders ( Mehta, 2015) . Domestic violence and rape impose a burden roughly equivalent on a per capita basis when comparing the developing with the industrial world.
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Violence directed against women on gender-basis includes acts that inflict suffering, sexual, mental, or physical harm and threats of acts such as deprivation of liberty. Gender-based violence includes forced sex and other forms such as women trafficking. Violence against women occurs in different situations and locations such as in prisons, homes, community, and refugee or displacement situations ( Krantz, 2016) . The violence impacts all spheres of women's lives such as productivity, autonomy, and the capacity to care for themselves or their children as well as their overall quality of life and health status. Victims of the issue often report somatic symptoms related to depression, panic, chronic pain, and musculoskeletal disorders, respiratory diseases, and genitourinary conditions. Moreover, victims of the issue tend to overuse drugs and attempt suicide.
Violence against women is a violation of the rights of women in addition to being a health concern. The issue is a violation of their reproductive and sexual rights and their bodily integrity. The act has a profound developmental impact because it perpetuates poverty through a reduction in the capacity of women to their mobility, working outside their home, access to information, and reduces their children's school attendance ( Krantz, 2016) . The significance of women’s socioeconomic health and wellbeing is recognized and seen as essential for sustainable development. Currently, it is recognized that women constitute a considerable force for change. However, violence against women is a major constraint to full participation for women in the society.
Social Constructionism
Violence in the form of domestic violence is given less attention than sexual assault but is often depicted in corporate media products including films, television shows, and news broadcasts. Domestic violence shares similar mediated depictions with sexual assault. The media particularly tends to imply that women are in some ways culpable when they are beaten by their partners, even murdered. News on violence against women is often reported in a routine manner informing audiences minimally about the extent, nature, and causes of the violence, and focus on minutiae rather than context (Easteal, Holland & Judd, 2015). The media over the past decade has begun acknowledging that violence against women is a serious problem, but the recognition is challenged by antifeminists in the media. The challenges are an indication that feminist research on violence against women research is inaccurate and biased.
Media representations of violence against women often supply class-biased and racializing discourses about abusers and their victims framing the act as largely the product of marginalized classes instead of an issue impacting a wide range of social strata. According to Chesney-Lind & Chagnon, (2018) , media coverage on violence against women abroad especially after September 11 terrorist attack in America provided racializing discourse juxtaposing the progress of western culture with a drawback in eastern culture. The media performs a poor job by cultivating a sophisticated understanding of violence against women among the public.
The media content reproduce sexist stereotypes that associate identities of male to domination, violence, power, and aggression. Women, on the other hand, are expected to be vulnerable, emotional, sensitive, and dependent (Montiel, 2018) . The news reporting on violence against women represent them as victims and responsible for the circumstances in which they are victims. The aggressors, usually are not part of the news report. The issue is not shown by the media as a structural problem, rather a mere individual experience used to happening in domestic spaces.
Functionalist Theories
The social groups according to broad theoretical tradition have a variety of functional requirements and specific needs that must be attained for the survival of a group in society. The evolution of a nation, community, and family often occur in a manner benefiting some individuals and work to oppress some. The society has established mechanisms such as courts and mediation to facilitate changes and eliminate injustice ( Blume, 2014) . Such mechanisms, however, have limitations in that, courts, for instance, establish a need for money or education to guarantee justice. Violence against women can be explained as an alternative for men who do not see ways to break out of positions where they do not benefit in a non-violent way.
Violence against women also occurs on functionalist perspectives. Functionalists view the society as a complex system whose parts promote stability and solidarity by working together ( (Lumen, 2018) . The society is looked at orientations such as in the micro-level, with great focus on social structures shaping the society holistically, looking at both social functions and social structure.
In a functionalist perspective, violence against women is considered a necessity especially when a variety of mechanisms in society fail to address societal needs. Rapid social, economic, and technological changes, as well as high-stress levels and conflicts between social groups, are some of the contributors to violence against women. The understanding of the violence leads to actions directly, when the society realizes what is broken, and organizes measures to fix it ( Blume, 2014) . The functionalist approach does not provide explanations on coordinating interventions or setting priorities, but points to various possible areas of change resulting essentially to a list of problems and proposed solutions.
Conflict Theory
The conflict theological perspective exposes society and family as a place that involves conflicts between their members and their various divergent interests. Individuals utilize aggression and violence when different interests produce conflicts to resolve situations in their favor, especially when other strategies fail ( Rakovec-Felser, 2014) . The conflict theory explains that there exist mechanisms in the society that make conflicts inexorable and inevitable such as power differentials that assure some exploit others and constitute a built-in conflict and tension source in a social system in relation to domestic violence.
Conflict theorist focuses on the differential distribution of power and economic resource inequalities in society and family as a cause of violence against the weak and women. The theory emphasizes firstly on women’s and men’s basic reflections reflecting inequalities (shodhganga, 2015) . For instance, when men control, women are controlled, where men dominate, women are dominated, and where men exploit, women are exploited. The inequalities are manifested in family positions, age, and gender differences. Individuals with the greatest economic resources, mostly men, tend to have the greatest amount of power within the family. Conflicts tend to arise when technological and economic changes force realignments in traditional structures of a family. Women subordination to men is not acceptable in contemporary society, yet the continued husband dominance over the wife can be a source of violence and conflict.
Violence against women occurs in every sphere of a woman’s life manifesting in various forms such as social, psychological, and physical violence. The consequences of the violence include adverse impacts on women’s health as well as psychological complications which cause disabilities in women. Conflict theory also mentions that family and marriage do not exist in isolation but always reflects the society where they exist. Theorists of conflict points that men maintain their dominance, control, and exploitation over women by the basic means of marriage (shodhganga, 2015) . Family and marriage reflect old subordination patterns when women are subordinated in society, consequently forming a basic field where conflicts between men and women take place.
Sociological Understanding
The sociological understanding of violence against women differs from each other and from popular perceptions in that it explains all types of violence against women. The sociological approach explains the etiology of violence against women and shows the recurrent pattern in which specific people commit some crime against specific people in particular circumstances. The sociological understanding takes into consideration the individual's acquired and innate behavior (shodhganga 2015) . According to the understanding, men use violent behavior against women because of their suffering from insecurity, anxieties, and feelings. The approach provides an explanation of differential patterns and distribution of violence against women among others in terms of individuals’ violation in their values, social adjustments, social conditions, and beliefs, rather than in terms of offenders’ mental processes and motivation that led to the crime.
All theoretical perspectives address violence against women explaining some types of family violence. No theory provides a thorough explanation of the causes of the violence because they only tend to examine certain variables. Therefore, the theories can only explain a fraction of the bigger picture.
From applying each perspective to the problem of violence against women, I learn that some theories are generalizable to various family violence but some are more specific dealing with one type. For instance, the conflict theory generalizes that differences may be a source of violence and conflict but fails to clarify how that translates into specific acts of violence (shodhganga, 2015) . Moreover, most inequalities do not lead necessarily to violence and inequality alone is not a significant condition for the occurrence of violence against females.
Based on my analysis, Social Constructionism perspective does a better job of explaining the violence against women issue. The perspective gives more prominence to societal structure factors as the major causes of violence. The perspective focuses on series of factors responsible for creating and transmitting stress to families and individuals including engendering climate and culture as well as those that provide and transmit support for the practice and acceptance of violence ( Casique & Furegato, 2016) . In Social Constructionism perspective, unemployed, lower income, less educated, and lower occupation status families are highly likely to encounter situational and structural stress and individuals with various socio-economic are socialized in completely different ways in their violence acceptance. The perspective examines various large-scale variables such as race, social class, poverty, and cultural and social structures among others to co-relate them with violence against women (shodhganga, 2015) . Despite violence against women existing among all income categories, educational levels, and social classes, a disproportionate number of individuals who violate women are male, unemployed or underemployed, and poor.
Conclusion
Violence against women is a multifactorial phenomenon, containing social, political, interpersonal, and social conflicts. Life in family and society require a sufficient level of behavioral order for individuals to co-exist peacefully. Individuals ensure the family and social system works orderly by performing the roles that go in hand with their status and by obeying various family and societal norms, although human behavior is multifaceted and complex. However, all the individuals fail to follow most of the norms and rules in the family and society and cause violence towards their fellow, especially the weak and women. Violence against women can be addressed by de-naturalizing the historical backgrounds that support masculine domination to destroy the political and social devices that produce differences in gender, culture, sexuality, and class. The issue can also be addressed by dismantling the institutions and social rules structuring daily life.
Reference
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