Domestic violence as a socio-psychological problem

The article, based on the analysis of scientific and regulatory literature, identifies and distinguishes the interpretation of the main concepts of the study, which are relevant and methodologically sound for further study of the topic. The essence of key categories, such as «violence» and «domestic violence», was clarified. These definitions allow us to form a holistic view of the subject of research and identify its basic characteristics, as well as determine scientific approaches to analysis. Thus, violence is the use of physical force against someone; the use of force to achieve something; coercive influence on someone, something; «domestic violence is an act (action or inaction) of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence committed in the family or within the place of residence or between relatives, or between former or current spouses, or between other persons who live (lived) together as one family, but are not (were not) in family relations or marriage to each other, regardless of whether the person who committed domestic violence lives (lived) in the same place as the victim, as well as threats to commit such acts». It has been established that the problem of domestic violence constantly attracts the attention of scientists. The views of scientists on the problem of preventing domestic violence, the state of development of the issue of preventing domestic violence are revealed. Having analyzed the materials of dissertation research and scientific publications in domestic publications, we can distinguish three main areas that researchers worked on: 1) sociopsychological assistance and prevention; 2) regulatory and organizational support; 3) legal education and changing public consciousness. It was found that in the field of combating domestic violence, there are key areas that require development: 1) limited approaches to subjects of violence (studies do not sufficiently take into account violence against other categories of victims); 2) lack of systematic assessment of the effectiveness of preventive measures (most studies are focused on describing models or programs, but little attention is paid to empirical analysis of their effectiveness).