What Does Domestic Violence Look Like?
Domestic violence is abusive behavior in which a person demands "Power and Control" over another person. It is a pattern of behavior in which a person uses deception, harassment, humiliation, manipulation or force to gain that power and control.
Four Types of Domestic Violence
- Physical: Includes shoving, pushing, choking, restraining, hitting or kicking. It can occur frequently or infrequently, but usually escalates in intensity over time.
- Sexual: Any time one partner forces sexual acts which are unwanted or declined by the other partner. This constitutes sexual assault.
- Psychological: Includes isolation from family and friends, financial dependence, verbal, emotional, or spiritual abuse, threats, intimidation, stalking, and control over where the partner goes or what they do.
- Attacks against property and/or pets: Destruction of or threatening destruction of property, which may include pets, household objects, or the house itself (hitting walls, etc).
Facts About Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is NOT a marital conflict, a lovers' quarrel, or a private family matter, and sexual assault is not about sex. It is about power and control over another person, whether that person is a child or an adult.
Women suffering in domestic violence relationships usually leave eight times, returning to the home each time, before they finally leave for good.
A woman and her children are in much more danger from their abuser AFTER they leave the home.
