One of the chief reasons it continues mostly unabated is that the poor do not live under the protection of the law. For a number of reasons: in developing countries the law enforcement officers are mostly incompetent, untrained, and unwilling to help the poor. In fact they form one of the regular sources of violence against the poor. The legal justice system also does not work for the poor. Because money is needed, the rich are able to get away with the violence.
Numerous reports by the United Nations, the World Bank and others, report not only the terrible effects on the poor but also on the nations and communities of which they are part. Ordinary criminal violence could be worth as much as 14% of GDP.
But we should not think that these problems affect only developing countries. All of these things are present in Australia too. The difference is not in the nature of the people but in the effectiveness of the criminal justice and law enforcement systems, as well as the social values and fabric that has been built up over long years - especially influenced and grounded in Christian values.
But sexual and domestic violence continues here as it does in other countries and for similar reasons: the people who suffer it don’t always think they will really be helped by the system. The advantage many in Australia have is that there are other support networks as well as law enforcement to help them.
As for the poor in other countries, do you know of groups that are working to help them within the legal system; to help girls escape from sexual slavery; to help those who are in so called “debt slavery”? And so on?
Dale