There are several theories surrounding domestic violence, including the idea that domestic violence is a learned behavior from childhood and that repressed batterers fall into a cycle of violence. For example, the social ecological model recognizes that factors contributing to domestic violence exist at the individual, relationship, community, and societal level.[1] Some factors, such as substance abuse, contribute to the frequency and severity of the abuse while others, such as the systematic acceptance of violence against women, has a causal relationship to domestic violence. 

Although there are no simple explanations, research indicates that domestic violence has its roots in the subordinate role women have traditionally held in private and public life in many societies. The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women describes violence against women as "a manifestation of historically unequal power relationships between men and women."[2] At the same time, violence is used to perpetuate and enforce women's subordinate role. In the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the United Nations and its member countries denounce domestic violence as one of the "crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into subordinate [positions] compared with men."[3] The following sections will outline different theories regarding domestic violence throughout recent history, contributing factors to domestic violence, and the role of alcohol in domestic cases.