Domestic Violence against Married Women in Cambodia Research Paper

Domestic Violence against Married Women in Cambodia - Research Paper Example Is there spousal abuse in Cambodia, and if so what factors are causing it This is a significant research problem for several reasons. First there is the issue of Human Rights for the women who are being battered. Domestic violence against women is a serious concern and no woman deserves to be harmed. Next there is the impact that the repression of women has had on society as a whole. When a woman is abused by her husband it creates and perpetuates a dysfunctional pattern of behavior in the world. I think that the motivation behind the research is sound. It can only be a positive thing to reduce violence against women. However one must keep in mind that the cultural norms are entirely different in South East Asia as compared to Western society. My biggest concern about the problems being perceived and studied here is that the scholarly theories presented may not have any relevance to the actual conditions as they are occurring in Cambodia. It seems that the academics are attempting to formulate different theories of the abuse and then gain evidence from the field to prove themselves correct. The paper paints a vivid portrait and fills in all of the details so that the reader does not necessarily need to critically examine the situation. All of the facts are wrapped up neatly in one small package with little room for speculation. Literature Review The researchers present abundant scholarly background information to support their hypotheses and make an effort to ensure the clarity of their position. The review of literature seemed to represent a fair sampling of arguments from several different perspectives. For any particular hypothesis, there are alternative explanations presented... The researchers present abundant scholarly background information to support their hypotheses and make an effort to ensure the clarity of their position. The review of literature seemed to represent a fair sampling of arguments from several different perspectives. For any particular hypothesis, there are alternative explanations presented to confirm the relevance of the present investigation. It some regards the review of literature for this article presents a convincing argument about the scope of past relevant research in this area. There are only a limited number of articles within this field from non-Western cultures but they seem to have been included in the review. The greatest strength of this section of the paper was that it covered a lot of diverse theories. The evidence is offered to support the dominant theories, yet any contrary evidence was suspiciously absent for some of the theories. The weakness of literature review was that it was too one-sided in some cases. For exa mple, it presented many articles in favor of the idea that there is a negative correlation between standard of living and domestic abuse but only one article to the contrary. Perhaps the article could have offered some explanation as to why this contrary view would have some value. This research article takes existing theoretical models and applies them to a novel population. For example, one academic model of domestic violence states that physical abuse is a resource, similar to money or goods, which people use for the purpose of controlling others.