Profiles of Victims and Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence in Nigeria Using the Socio-Ecological Model

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a significant public health and human rights concern in Nigeria, with prevalence estimates ranging from 33% to 68%. Evidence shows that IPV is shaped by interacting determinants across individual, relational, community, and societal levels. The Socio-Ecological Model (SEM) offers a structured framework to examine how these layered influences shape both victimisation and perpetration within intimate relationships.

Objective: To synthesise existing literature to identify and analyse the profiles of victims and perpetrators of IPV in Nigeria using the SEM framework.

Method: A narrative literature review was conducted using peer-reviewed studies published between 2008 and 2025. Databases searched included PubMed, Medline, Scopus, and Google Scholar. The Heise Integrated Ecological Framework guided data extraction and categorisation into victim profiles, perpetrator profiles, and contextual determinants across SEM levels.

Results: Victims were commonly characterised by younger age, low educational attainment, economic dependence, limited legal awareness, childhood exposure to violence, poverty, and social isolation. Perpetrators frequently exhibited alcohol or substance misuse, controlling behaviours, unemployment, psychological distress, jealousy, low education, and strong adherence to patriarchal norms. Contextual drivers included community poverty, weak institutional protection, normative acceptance of wife beating, rural–urban disparities, and social instability. These factors interact across SEM levels to sustain IPV.

Conclusion: IPV in Nigeria is driven by interrelated individual, relational, and structural determinants. Effective prevention requires integrated, multi-level interventions that address both vulnerability and perpetration within broader socio-cultural and economic systems.

Unique Contribution: This review provides a structured synthesis of victim and perpetrator profiles within Nigeria using the SEM, highlighting how contextual forces shape behavioural risk patterns and reinforcing the need for comprehensive approaches.

Key Recommendation: Policy and practice responses should combine economic empowerment, gender-norm transformation, mental health and substance-use interventions, strengthened legal enforcement, and community-based prevention strategies to address IPV at multiple levels simultaneously.