If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Understanding why domestic violence occurs in the first place is critical if we are to succeed at the enormous challenge of ending it.
Domestic violence is rooted in a long history of oppression.
Social values and beliefs have long supported the notions that women and children are the property of men, that men have the right to control their wives and children, that men have the right to have sex with their wives, and that husbands should beat their wives as necessary to maintain family order and their own authority. Social and legal traditions have created and maintained a belief that men have a right to control their female partners and children. In British Common Law, women ceased to exist as a legal entity when they married. This belief system prevailed in other arenas, such as religion. Rape was not a crime against the female victim but a crime against the father or husband.