Abstract:
The main objective of this research is to study the causes of domestic violence and
strategies to deal with family violence in Thai society using in-depth interviews of 33 luminaries
or key informants consisting of householders living in Bangkok, scholars, psychologists, social
workers, justice practitioners, independent human rights organizations, clergymen, and 12
domestic violence offenders, undisclosed victims, totaling 45 people, as well as questionnaires
from a sampling of 400 individuals living in 10 districts in Bangkok.
The results from the research discovered that domestic violence in Thai society was
caused by many factors and conditions. The overall sampling group provides an outlook at a
statistical significance of ( X = 3.57, S.D. = .61) consisting of:
1) Individual: includes unavailability of parents, inappropriate spouses behavior, drug
addiction, gambling, marital infidelity, parenting inequality, personal experience in domestic
violence, irresponsibility of being a role model parent, and mental and personality disorders.
2) Economic: includes poverty, unemployment, mounting debt, attachment to
materialism and consumerism by globalization.
3) Social and culture: includes a crowded and vulnerable environment, influence of media
incitement, and lack of time for family.
4) Psychology: inequality between women and men that holds higher significance to
males than females, being far from the morals and ethics of the family members, lack of morals
and ethics instilled by both family and educational institutions.
5) Education: the lack of knowledge in sex education, conflict resolution by peaceful
means and knowledge of human rights.
The strategy to handle domestic violence from the past to the present has found that there
is a LEGAL PROCESS that includes 1) The Law: Focuses on the legal process as the main
criteria, but there is still a lack of effective enforcement, which affects the interpretation of the
related agencies, 2) Enforcing the law: Agencies still lack an understanding of their role and lack a
connection of information or the working process isnt continuous, 3 ) The lack of protection for
victims of domestic violence: Promotes to the public the strengthening of the mind, public
awareness of the law that protects victims of violence and sanctions for violence. Strategies for
dealing with domestic violence in Thai society should focus on the prevention of violence that
occurs within the family, and ending violence by peaceful means. Emphasizing that family
members recognize the value of each other by building trust to contribute to the management and
reduction of domestic violence in the form of STOP FAMILY VIOLENCE at a statistical
significance of ( X = 3.99, S.D. = .64).
In addition, based on the analysis of attitudes towards the causes of domestic violence in
Thai society, the research found that it is caused by parenting backgrounds by different host
families which corresponds statistically at a significance of 0.01 in accordance to the first
hypothesis. In the case of backgrounds of different population groups which yields a different
approach in managing violence in the family in Thailand, the research found that the attitude
towards the strategy in dealing with family violence in Thai society and the various family
backgrounds show the significant differences in attitudes, statistically at 0.01. The results show
that people of different backgrounds tackle domestic violence differently in accordance to the
second hypothesis. It was also discovered from the male sample that their attitude towards
strategies to deal with violence in the family that is appropriate to Thai society is only slightly
higher than females. The strategy in dealing with domestic violence correlated moderately in the
same direction as the cause of the problem of domestic violence in Thai society.