Assessment of Correlation Patterns in Indicators of Residential People in Marginalized and Non-marginalized Areas with the Rate of Domestic Violence against Their Children

One of the most important consequences of social developments in the second half of the past century is expansion of urbanization. The accelerated development of urbanization has been associated with different consequences and numerous urban pathologies. One phenomenon appeared in parallel to the rushed urbanization was the expansion of marginalization، which has been overgrown around the big cities. Marginalization، in Iran، in the past years has created social، economical، cultural، security and environmental problems in the metropolitans. It has unprecedentedly caused a plenty of crimes and delinquency، in particular the domestic violence against children and women in poor areas and lower classes of society due to economical and cultural issues as well as housing conditions and other factors. These social harms are continually increasing in such areas. So، this issue not only has faced the judicial system with a great challenge، but it is also very hazardous culturally، socially، economically، mentally and politically. Hence، the present research focuses on the two following questions: first، how is the rate of domestic violence against the children in the Ahwaz- marginalized area? Second، to what extent the residential indicators of marginalized and non-marginalized areas (housing conditions، socio-economic status، ethnicity and previous record of substance abuse) are related to domestic violence against children? The methodology of this study is a combination of descriptive (survey one) and analytical، for which the exploratory studies were performed through library search and preliminary visit and field study using research tools. The population is whole the students (14-18 ages) attending in second school and are now living with their parents in 8- zone districts of both Ahwaz- marginalized and non marginalized areas in 2013-2014. Assessment Tools: 1. Child Abuse Questionnaire: in the present study، the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) (Brainstein 1995) was used. It is a self-reporting tool and is used for assessing the abusing of childhood. The CTQ measures the abusing in five subscales and gives a total score، indicating the Global Maltreatment scale. The five subscales of CTQ include Emotional Abuse (EA)، Physical Abuse (PA)، Sexual Abuse (SA)، Emotional Neglect (EN)، and physical Neglect (PN). 2. The Residential Indicators of Marginalized: This author- made questionnaire is dedicated to assessing the housing circumstances and its quality (house area، ownership، number of rooms). 3. Socio-economic Status Questionnaire: In order to measure the socio-economic status، the Duncan (1986) ’s socio-economic status scale، the most widely used scale in the social research، was employed and the three factors were considered as the basis of socioeconomic status of the subjects: job، income and education level. 4. Ethnicity: In this research the ethnicity means one of the ethnicities of Fars، Arabs، Lurs، Turks and others which are measured by one item. 5. Previous Record of Abuse Substance: This means the dependence of one of the parents on substances that are frequently used by them. In this study، the previous records of abuse substance is assessed on the basis of two items of addict record and regular drug use such as opium، morphine، heroin by one of the parents. 6. Demographics Questionnaire: This questionnaire is employed to collect the demographic data and independent variables such as age، gender، education and number of family members. To analysize the data، the statistical parameters like percentile، mean، standard deviation، Pearson correlation، T test and regression analysis were used. In order to measure the validity of questions، 40 questionnaires were first filled by the subjects and the validity coefficient was measured by Chronbach Alpha، so that the strength of the items is consistently specified. After having filled the questionnaires by respondents، the data were processed by using the SPSS software at two levels of descriptive and inferential statistics. The results show that there is a significant correlation between total residential indicators in conditions (house area، ownership and number of rooms) of marginalized and non marginalized people with rate of domestic violence against their children. The findings were consistent with those of Mohsani Tabrizi (2004)، Mohammad Khani 2008) Mansoure Aazamzadeh (2006)، Shahab (2004)، Mary (1981)، Fisher Nasl & Greenberg 1992)، Ruhr & Williams 1982) who believes that the life in the margin areas and living in the house with small spaces result in distress، anomie and poor social bonding and loss of social support. The findings also indicate there was a significant correlation between socio-economic status of marginalized and non-marginalized with rate of domestic violence against children. The findings of this research are consistent with some of the sociology theories of deviations، social disorganization، ecological theory and structural strain theory as well as with Merton (1975) and Shaw Mc kay (1942) who believe that the feeling of deprivation in the families with lower socio-economic status، lack of conditions appropriate to life، job status، education level and parent’s income should be taken into account as family indicators. This is because they have a significant effect on outbreak of dispute and violence in the families and finally they make an individual violent. The results also showed that there was no significant correlation between ethnicity of the marginalized and non-marginalized with rate of domestic violence against children. The possible reasons for rejecting the above hypothesis is that: i) each of ethnics (Lurs and Arabs) in the population was not very low minority، ii) both Lurs and Arabs were equal in the most of features and their mean violence was also generally equal by iii) lack of suitable basis for comparing both of the ethnics in committing violence against children. The findings indicated that there was a significant correlation between records of drug abuse of marginalized and non-marginalized with domestic violence against children. The present results are consistent with those of Mohammad Khani (1998)، Ahmadi 2004)، Sotode (1997) Prak & Burges (1928) who showed that the high rate of crime and delinquency among adults، increases the addict to drugs and lead to maltreatment and violence against children and spouses Generally، the results from present research، which are consistent with ecological، social disorganization، deprivation and structural strain theories، found that people residing in the margins tend to commit crime and violence because of having socio-economic problems such as poor subsistence status، low income، and unsuitable housing and so on. Therefore، it is recommended that urban facilities and services and job opportunities should be equally distributed and that enhancing the life quality of marginalized neighborhoods and the parents must be given social and relational education in order to treat accurately with children.