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Factors Influencing Domestic and Marital Violence against Women in Ghana

  • GENDER ISSUES IN VIOLENCE AND TRAUMA
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Abstract

Using the most recent version of the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey and employing complementary log-log models, this study examined the causes of both physical and sexual violence among married women in Ghana. Results indicate that wealth and employment status that capture feminist explanations of domestic violence were not significantly related to both physical and sexual violence. Education was however, related to physical violence among Ghanaian women. Women who thought wife beating was justified and those who reported higher levels of control by their husbands had higher odds of experiencing physical and sexual violence. Also, compared to those who had not, women who witnessed family violence in their lives were significantly more likely to have experienced physical and sexual violence.

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Notes

  1. A practice in which a woman becomes the automatic wife of the brother of her late husband

  2. Where widows are subjected to several acts of cruelty including pouring pepper into their eyes and private parts, severe beating etc. all in the name of paying respects to the dead husband (see Amoakohene 2004; Ampofo 1993)

  3. Trokosi’ comes from two words, ‘Tro’ meaning God and ‘Kosi’ translated as virgin, slave or wife. The practice demands that women, in particular, young girls be given as slaves to priests of specific shrines to appease the gods or spirits of crimes perpetrated by some family members (see Amoah 2007).

  4. A technique that helps in the determination of an “ideal” cut-off value based on the trade-offs between sensitivity and specificity. In ideal situations the desired cut-off value produces the highest sensitivity and specificity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Memorial University, St John, Canada

    Eric Y. Tenkorang

  2. Institute of Statistical Social Research, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

    Adobea Y. Owusu

  3. Department of Sociology and Social Work, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

    Eric H. Yeboah

  4. Department of Accountancy, Takoradi Polytechnic, Takoradi, Ghana

    Richard Bannerman

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  1. Eric Y. Tenkorang
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  2. Adobea Y. Owusu
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  3. Eric H. Yeboah
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  4. Richard Bannerman
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Correspondence to Eric Y. Tenkorang.

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Tenkorang, E.Y., Owusu, A.Y., Yeboah, E.H. et al. Factors Influencing Domestic and Marital Violence against Women in Ghana. J Fam Viol 28, 771–781 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-013-9543-8

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