Understanding Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive global health and social crisis with devastating physical, psychological, social, and economic consequences. While affecting diverse populations, IPV disproportionately impacts women and marginalised groups, reflecting entrenched inequalities and systemic failures. This chapter explores IPV through multiple theoretical frameworks—including ecological, social learning, and feminist perspectives—to illuminate how violence arises from the interplay of individual histories, relational dynamics, community contexts, and societal structures. Key drivers such as power imbalances, economic dependence, and cultural or religious norms are examined alongside systemic barriers in legal, healthcare, economic, and community support systems that constrain survivors’ options. By highlighting both the global prevalence and the structural roots of IPV, this chapter underscores the need for comprehensive, multi-level responses that dismantle patriarchal norms, strengthen economic independence, ensure trauma-informed and culturally responsive services, and address systemic inequities. It concludes by advocating for a transformative agenda that redefines intimate relationships as spaces of equality, safety, and mutual empowerment rather than sites of control and harm.