Prevention of domestic violence against women and children in low-income and middle-income countries.

Abstract

Violence against women and children is increasingly recognized as an important and urgent public health, social and human rights issue cutting across geographical, socioeconomic and cultural boundaries. There is a large and growing body of literature that demonstrates the negative impact of such violence on the victim's mental and physical health, as well as several other consequences on them, their families and communities. However, this literature for the most part comes from the so-called 'developed countries'. This review, at the opposite, focused on current literature on prevention of domestic/family violence against children and women in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Establishing effective prevention programmes for domestic violence against women and children in LMICs requires an understanding of the sociopolitical, economic and cultural settings and a multilevel collaboration among various stakeholders. This review confirms the lack of research in the so-called 'developing countries' and provides suggestions for further research and prevention efforts in this setting.