Domestic violence also referred to as Intimate partner violence can be defined as any “act of violence against women by the husbands or in-laws” (Singh & Singh, 2008 p. 147). Others have defined it as emotional, physical or sexual abuse of an adult (Shalev et al., 1999). This type of violence is prevalent each and every society and it cases are on the rise. According to James et al. (2005), it is estimated that nearly 25 million women and 7 million men in the United States have gone through an instance of partner violence during their lives. In studies conducted by Rennison and Rand (2003), it was found that young adults were at risk of experiencing domestic violence. However, escalating number of parent abuse, child sexual abuse, sibling violence, elder abuse and child abuse has brought to light the ills of domestic violence.
Parent abuse often results when children cause emotional, financial or physical harm to their parents usually with the intention of gaining power over them (Mooney et al., 2008). Cases of parent abuse have brought to the society the harmful effect of domestic violence as parents suffer under the cruel acts of their children. Additionally, instances of sibling violence depict the problem of domestic violence in families. With sibling violence, children in a given family fight one another as a consequence of poor relationship between siblings (Allan & Kashani, 1998).with sibling violence, proper development is hindered at the family level due to fights and disagreement between siblings.
The problems of domestic violence have also been manifested in the occurrence of elder abuse where the elderly suffer emotionally, physical or sexually in the hand of a caregiver (Summers et al., 2006). Through this abuse, the aged have been abused and assaulted by their caregivers who have little regards to them. Cases of child sexual abuse have also highlighted the negative consequences of domestic violence. Child sexual abuse occurs when a child comes into sexual exposure or contact by a person older than the child for purpose of sexual advances (Mukherjee & Deb, 2009). All the mentioned cases of violence have made it possible for the society to understanding the harmful effects of domestic violence.