International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies Volume 2, Issue 4, April 2015, PP 62-72 ISSN 2394-6288 (Print) & ISSN 2394-6296 (Online) *Address for correspondence fjura@gmail.com International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies V2 ● I4 ● April 2015 62 Domestic Violence: Causes and Implications for the Education System Florence Jura, Richard Bukaliya Zimbabwe Open University, Marondera, Zimbabwe BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Domestic violence in Zimbabwe is increasing annually despite the fact that Domestic Violence Act Chapter 5:16 has been put in place to protect those who are domestically abused by their spouses, (Police Report. 2011). The Act protects both parties, thus men and women in spousal relationships. Laing (2002) suggests that understanding domestic violence has been demonstrated to depend on the beliefs and/or theories chosen to explain domestically violent behaviour in men. This is strongly evidenced through a range of different perceptions of and approaches to domestic violence across relevant social groups. Domestically violent behaviour finds both expression and explanations in the individual characteristics of both perpetrator and victim, societal beliefs about domestic behaviour in general and incidences of domestic abuse in the home in particular and systems theories that have been developed to try and understand the nature and in particular the causes of domestic violent behaviour of men in spousal relationships. Below are a brief discussion on the nature of domestic violence and the dominant theories that have been developed in an attempt to explain domestically violent behaviour. Statement of the Problem What seems to be the problem in the problem of domestic violence is the fact that, given the number of theories developed to explain the possible causes of domestic violence, the trend has been moving upwards instead of down and its effects are felt not only by the spouses but become imprinted on the siblings minds and those of the community at large. This has led the researcher to look deeper at both the perpetrator and victim characteristics and the how consistent these are with the theories that have been developed and how intervention programs by professional agencies could benefit from the observed relationship and help them fashion effective rehabilitative behavioural change of domestically violent men. The question that needs to answered, therefore is: What are the causes of domestic violence? Purpose of the Study With domestic violence cases on the rise, there are a large number of services like counselling, education, imprisonment, available for men who abuse their partners. The researcher found these interventions to be consistently in competition in terms of their effectiveness. Perceptions surrounding the nature of domestic violence have grown in diversity across the community. A unified understanding of causal factors about why domestic violence exists is crucial in providing a baseline for professionals to adhere to when deciding successful and effective intervention approaches. The growing number of explanations for, and responses to, domestic violence provide the purpose of the present study, which is to analyse the current relationship between these two factors. Research Questions Five research questions were put forward in order to measure these variables. The five research questions are: What are the possible causal explanations of spousal domestic violence? How are the perpetrator and victim characteristics contributing to domestic spousal abuse?