Marriage Laws and Violence against the Spouse

Marriage laws are ignored by demographers, who prefer to use socio-economic data. However, marriage laws have considerable influence over family relationships, for example by stipulating whether equality must be respected in marital relations. This document analyses marriage laws in numerous countries to establish a possible link between rates of domestic violence and the level of equality present in the marital laws of any particular country. It concludes that despite considerable progress made in the last 60 years, marital laws in many countries are still discriminatory against women and often institutionalise subordination to their husbands. It seems that countries with more equal marital laws register lower levels of domestic violence. However other factors like equal divorce conditions, access to an equal judicial system and equal values manifested by women members of parliament have also been seen as contributing factors to a decrease in the level of domestic violence.