Domestic Violence

Resources

What is Domestic Violence?

Domestic violence is any behavior used to control, manipulate and/or intimidate an intimate partner through fear, humiliation, and verbal or physical attacks. Domestic violence is a choice: it is about power and control and not about love. Domestic violence crosses all socioeconomic backgrounds including same sex relationships.

Types of Domestic Violence

This behavior can take many forms and can be broken down into these categories:

  • Physical Abuse: Examples include hitting, smacking, kicking, biting, burning, threats with or without a weapon, strangulation, grabbing, or restraining
  • Emotional Abuse: Examples include name-calling, constant criticizing, jealousy, accusations of imagined affairs, withholding affection, threats to significant others, being locked out of the house, public humiliation, or mind games such as denying that something happened or saying I love you followed by physical abuse
  • Sexual Abuse: Examples include rape, forced prostitution, forced or unwanted sex games or roleplaying, forced sex with others, criticizing sexual performance, unprotected sex, the abuser having sex out side of the relationship, or putting the victim at risk for disease
  • Financial Abuse: Examples include being forced to quit a job or being forced to work, having no access to money, being given no say in the spending of the money, being required to account for every last penny spent, or being given an allowance then having to ask / beg for more