CAUSES OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND ABUSE AGAINST WOMEN AND ITS EFFECTS ON FAMILY RELATIONSHIP IN FOUR SELECTED LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT: This study was carried out on the causes of domestic violence and abuse against women and its effects on family relationship in four selected Local Government in Taraba State, Nigeria. To achieve this 4 research questions were formulated.  The survey design was adopted and the simple random sampling techniques were employed in this study. The population size comprise of the entire married men and women in the study area. In determining the sample size, the researcher purposively selected 240 respondents while 200 respondents were validated. Self-constructed and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected and validated questionnaires were analyzed using frequency tables and percentage. While the hypothesis were tested using Pearson Correlation statistical too. SPSS v23.

The result of the findings reveals that; Sexual abuse against women has a negative effect on family relationship in Taraba State; Early marriage of young girls has a very high unpalatable effect on women and family relationship in Taraba State; Women deprivation of rights in decision making has a high effect on family relationship; There is a significant relationship between the effects of spousal abuse against women and family relationship in Taraba State; Thee effects of sexual abuse against women has a significant correlationn with family relationship in Taraba State ad so many more.

Based on the findings, the researcher recommended that efforts to domesticate CEDAW and pass the Abolition of all forms of Discrimination Law and the Administration of Criminal Justice Law should be renewed. Hence, effective domestication of these laws should be decentralized and implemented at all levels of government; There is need for educating people about family responsibility, as way of eradicating domestic violence among families and to mention but a few.