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Review: Intimate Partner Violence in Sri Lanka
BioScience Trends (2010)
  • Achini C Jayatilleke
  • Krishna C. Poudel, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
  • Junko Yasuoka
  • Achala U. Jayatilleke
  • Masamine Jimba
Abstract
To describe the current situation of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Sri Lanka, and to propose possible interventions to prevent IPV, we performed a literature survey for articles and reports on IPV in Sri Lanka. Our results suggested that prevalence of IPV is high (40%) in Sri Lanka. Most of the IPV studies were conducted in health care institutions and missed IPV victims who had not attended a health care institution. A common belief in Sri Lanka, even among medical students and police officers is that IPV is a personal matter that outsiders should not intervene. The laws against IPV identify the physical and psychological IPV, but not the sexual IPV. To improve this situation of IPV in Sri Lanka, we recommend IPV education programs for medical students and police officers, community awareness programs on IPV, and amending the laws to identify sexual IPV. We also recommend well designed community based research on IPV.
Keywords
  • Human rights,
  • intimate partner violence,
  • patterns,
  • prevalence,
  • Sri Lanka,
  • women
Disciplines
Publication Date
2010
Citation Information
Achini C Jayatilleke, Krishna C. Poudel, Junko Yasuoka, Achala U. Jayatilleke, et al.. "Review: Intimate Partner Violence in Sri Lanka" BioScience Trends Vol. 4 Iss. 3 (2010)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/krishna_poudel/24/