Sociologists reject the view that domestic violence has psychological rather than social causes because:
- domestic violence is far too widespread; to be simply the work of a few disturbed individuals
- domestic violence accounts for between a sixth and a quarter of all recorded violent crime
- domestic violence does not occur randomly; but follows particular social patterns which have social causes
- women were more likely than men to have experienced 'intimate violence' across all four types of abuse - partner abuse, family abuse, sexual assault and stalking