Domestic violence against women in Nigeria: time to engage the criminal law

Abstract

Domestic violence is violence or physical abuse directed toward a spouse or domestic partner, usually involving violence by men against women. Any abuse, including physical, emotional, sexual, or financial between intimate partners, often living in the same household is domestic violence. The term is often used specifically to designate physical assaults upon women by their male partners, but, though rarer, the victim may be a male abused by his female partner, and the term may also be used regarding abuse of both women and men by same-sex partners. Partners may be married or not. Domestic violence could also be defined as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner. Abuse in a relationship is any act used to gain power and control over another person. Women who are abused physically are often isolated. Their partners tend to control their lives to a great extent as well as verbally degrade them. This paper will discuss firstly, the nature of the crime of domestic violence and secondly, the aspect of women’s rights being violated when abused and tortured and the consequences; thirdly, the international perspective of domestic violence looking into specific international instruments protecting women’s rights and State responsibility; fourthly, it will discuss domestic violence in Nigeria, cultural beliefs and why domestic violence should be criminalized.