What is Domestic Violence?

Domestic violence is a deliberate pattern of assaultive and controlling behaviors, including physical, sexual, and psychological attacks, that one intimate partner does to another to gain power and maintain control.

It is not marital conflict, a lover's quarrel, or just a private family matter. It is a serious social problem. The batterer may be a husband, ex-husband, boyfriend, partner (including same sex), ex-partner, or a housemate. *Abuse and violence are learned behaviors.

Different Types of Domestic Violence:

• Physical abuse - includes slapping, hitting, kicking, choking, grabbing, pinching, shoving, punching, etc. or the use of a weapon; also includes being forced to use alcohol or drugs.
• Sexual abuse - includes any coerced or forced sexual contact, undermining a person's sexuality, unprotected sex, and rape in marriage.
• Verbal/emotional abuse - includes name-calling, insults, put- downs, threats, belittling, silent treatment, criticism etc.
• Psychological abuse - includes intimidatioin, isolation from family and friends, harrassing, and/or attempts to control one's behavior
• Economic abuse - includes attempts to make someone financially dependent i.e. witholding money, keeping someone from working or school, harrassing someone at work, controlling all incomes, and requiring justification for any monies spent.
• Legal abuse - includes dragging out legal/custody proceedings, refusing to pay support or alimony, witholding assets, and fighting for custody solely to maintain control over the victim's whereabouts.

  Destroying possessions or treasured objects, hitting walls, breaking doors, abusing and /or killing one's pets are acts of psychological domestic violence.

The effects of abuse are serious: Victims of domestic violence may suffer short term and long term symptoms of isolation, depression, low self-esteem, physical illness, withdrawal, anger or rage, confusion or chronic fear. Without intervention domestic violence will escalate and can lead to the serious injury or death of the victim and / or the batterer.

Abuse may occur frequently or infrequently, but in most cases it tends to escalate in severity and frequency over time