What is Domestic Abuse ?

Legally, domestic abuse is described as: Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence, or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality.

This abuse can encompass but is not limited to: Psychological, Emotional, Physical, Sexual , Financial, Stalking and Harassment, Coercive and Controlling Behaviour

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Types of abuse

Sexual abuse

forcing, blackmailing, or coercing someone into unwanted sexual activity. It is illegal to rape someone under any circumstances even if the victim and perpetrator are in an intimate relationship. Every sexual encounter must always be consensual regardless of relationship status. Revenge porn comes under the category of domestic sexual abuse. Revenge porn is the criminal offence of threatening to share or sharing sexual images or videos of a person without their consent.

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Financial abuse

is controlling someone’s money or finances, withholding money or stopping someone from earning money. Domestic abusers will often limit the amount of money their victim can spend and demand to see proof of purchase to ensure their rules are followed.

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Physical abuse

is any act of violence or behaviour that can cause physical harm. Examples include hitting, kicking, strangulation, burning, spitting, hair pulling etc. Often perpetrators of domestic abuse will ensure their victims has hidden injuries or injuries that can covered easily.

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Emotional abuse and Psychological abuse

This includes regular and deliberate use of words and non-physical actions with the purpose of manipulation, harm or to frighten someone. Threats are often used to emotionally harm and to establish control within a relationship. Psychological abuse consists of a person purposefully attempt to distort, confuse or influence a person’s thoughts or views. This is often described as gas lighting. This is when someone aims to make someone else question their own reality.

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Coercive and Controlling Behaviour

This became an offence in 2015. Coercive and controlling behaviour is when someone’s behaviour is designed to make a person dependant by isolating them from support and depriving them of independence. A perpetrator will often create rules for their victim to follow which they are able to enforce by using threating behaviour. A perpetrator may dictate where their victim can go, who they can spend time with, what they should wear, their daily routine, their parenting style as well as anything else they choose to have control over.

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Female Genital Mutilation

(FGM) is a procedure that takes place to cut, remove or alter the female genitals, this is otherwise known as female circumcision. FGM is illegal in the UK and it is also illegal to take a female out of the UK to have the procedure done overseas. FGM can effect babies, children and adult women. This procedure is extremely painful and can have long lasting effects on women and girls both physically and emotionally.

FGM is a form of child abuse. It’s dangerous and a criminal offence in the UK.

• there are no medical reasons to carry out FGM
• it is often performed by someone with no medical training, using instruments such as knives, scalpels, scissors, glass or razor blades
• children are rarely given anaesthetic or antiseptic treatment and are often forcibly restrained
• it is used to control female sexuality and can cause long-lasting damage to physical and emotional health.

FGM can happen at different times in a girl or woman’s life, including:

• when a baby is new-born
• during childhood or as a teenager
• just before marriage
• during pregnancy.

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Categories of domestic abuse

Intimate terrorism is when a perpetrator will use coercive control and threats to make their victim feel subordinate. These victims often feel terrified of their partner and will follow demands they make as the consequences of not doing so could result in further abuse. The motivation of an intimate terrorist is to retain power and control.

Violent resistance is when a victim of intimate terrorism uses violence towards their perpetrator as an attempt to fight back or as a reaction to their abusers’ behaviour. Violent resistance typically results in the intimate terrorist’s behaviour escalating in order to re-establish their power and control. Intimate terrorists that have experienced violent resistance will often report their partner’s behaviour to the police to suggest that they are the innocent victim in the relationship.

Situational couple violence is when there is no abusive power dynamic in the home and neither partner lives in fear of the other however, abusive or violence has occurred. Situational couple violence is usually the result of relationship conflict that escalates from an argument into abusive behaviour. This could be an isolated incident or a regular occurrence when couples experience conflict.

Separational Violence is violence or abuse that continues after a relationship has ended. Domestic abuse doesn’t stop when the relationship ends. It is common for abuse to escalate significantly once the relationship has ended as the perpetrator feels out of control.