Direction (Qs.1 to 8): A passage is given with 8 questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

It is known that domestic violence is mostly perpetrated by men against women victims and that it often begins, or gets worse, around pregnancy. Domestic violence is generally repetitive, in that once it has occurred once, it is likely to be repeated, either in the same manner or utilising a different form (psychological, sexual or physical), with each form of the violence interacting with the other form and causing problems for the victim(s) of the violence, who are not only the partner but also any children that may be present in the household. Shockingly, a high proportion of children living with domestic violence are themselves being abused, with almost 80% of the children who are on the ‘at-risk’ register coming from homes where domestic violence is known to occur. In addition, research has shown that there is a correlation between being an abusive partner and having witnessed abusive behaviour in one’s childhood.

In terms of the theoretical models that have been posited to explain domestic violence, social exchange theory suggests that human interactions are guided by seeking rewards and avoiding costs and punishment, with domestic violence tending to occur when being violent does not outweigh the rewards on offer. Following this reasoning, therefore, one of the ways to reduce the prevalence of domestic violence is to increase the cost attached to being a ‘batterer’ (i.e., a person who inflicts violence on an intimate partner) through, for example, creating and enforcing criminal laws against domestic violence. Deterrence can, after all, be defined as, “the state’s ability to diminish the incidence of a prohibited action through legal threats which clearly indicate that the costs of action would be greater than any benefits derived from it”. Other theories suggested explaining the prevalence of domestic violence include social learning theory, which suggests that people learn to be violent through reinforcement (i.e., receiving a reward or being punished directly after an aggressive act has taken place) or through modelling (i.e., basing one’s actions on what one has witnessed). As has been seen, intergenerational transmission of the behaviour that leads to domestic violence is possible and, indeed, occurs in many situations. On this basis, many ‘batterers’ are treated, attempting to reverse the behaviour that leads to domestic violence on the premise that what has been learned can be un-learned.