Does Religion Have An Impact On Why Women Choose

To Stay In Domestic Violence Relationships?

Shoranda Battle

July 10, 2014

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Abstract

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Abstract.............................................2

II. Introduction.......................................4

III. Literature Review..............................5-

IV. Hypothesis/ Research Question(s).....

V. Methods..............................................

VI. Conclusion..........................................

VII. References..........................................

VIII. Appendices.........................................

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 INTRODUCTION

My proposal is about researching to find out if religion plays a role in why

women choose to stay with their abusive mate. There can be many other contributing

factors to why religious women choose to stay with their abusive mate. However, based

off of my personal experiences and observation I believe that religion has an over welling

influence on the domestic violence victims choice. This research that I am proposing to

do can provide new insight to what I believe to be true about this topic. I want to know

what is that impact, is it the women religious practices that forbids them to ever leave

their spouse, is it the religious expectations that is placed on oneself or could it be the

religious leaders or fellow congregation that encourages them to hang in there when

support is seek out by the victims. It could be so many factors about religion that can

have an ultimate role in why abused women continue to stay in their abusive relationship,

by doing this type of research I hope to find the reasons.

I find this topic to be interesting because domestic violence has an impact on

millions of women lives and it is important to know what contributes to it. When women

are abused and the very thing that they lean to for support encourages them to stay there

can affect not only their personal lives but also their children lives, friendships, family

and work environment. Abused women tend to withdrawal themselves by isolation and

many deal with depression and can develop different types of mental illnesses from these

issues. How can abused women take care of their children when they are verbally,

emotionally and physically abused by their significant others? So therefore, I want to

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conduct research to find out does religion have an impact on why women choose to stay

in their abusive relationships?

LITERATURE REVIEW

In the article The Church-Does it Provide Support for Abused Women?

Difference of battered Women and Parishioners the authors wanted to address the gap

between religion and domestic violence by conducting a research that its main goal was

to understand the contributions of the religious teaching and practices by asking church

members that never been abused and abused woman who in the past attended church to

share their belief, knowledge and experience on the church about the matter. They wanted

to compare the views of the Parishioners who are the church members who never been

abused to the Battered Women on how much of an influence they thought the church

had on domestic violence situations (Manetta el at. 2003:11). The three questions that the

researchers posed while doing this research was 1. Is there a difference in the beliefs of

parishioners and battered women regarding whether or not church teaching contributes to

a climate that supports domestic violence? 2. Is there a difference in the beliefs that

women should be submissive to their husbands among parishioners and battered women?

3. What information about domestic violence do parishioners and battered women believe

the church offers? (Manetta el at. 2003:12).

The study followed a non-probability cross-sectional design with availability

sampling and included both quantitative and qualitative components. (Manetta el at.

2003:12). The researchers conducted a survey questionnaire and submitted it to the two

groups. It was a total 287 participate of both groups that took the questionnaire. The

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findings from the first question that was presented the parishioners 24.2% agreed while

compared to the battered woman that was 51.9%.