Wife battering in South Korea: An ecological systems analysis

This article reviews the risk and protective factors for wife battering in South Korea based on the ecological systems theory. Although wife battering has been recognized as a major social problem in South Korea, understanding this phenomenon has been limited because the majority of empirical studies have examined individual characteristics without much consideration to broader environmental contexts for the victims and perpetrators. This review integrates the existing findings collectively on the factors associated with wife battering in South Korea within the context of micro-, meso-, exo-, macro-, and chrono-system levels. We then formulate implications on assessment and intervention strategies, which practitioners can utilize.