What is domestic abuse?
Many people think that domestic abuse just means physical violence. This sometimes leads to victims not seeking help because "at least they don’t hit me". But domestic abuse is about control – about how one person uses an intimate relationship to control another person, often their partner or former partner. The controlling behaviour forms a pattern, rather than being one-off incidents.
It can include a range of behaviour:
- Physical violence – slapping, burning, beating, kicking, biting, knife wounds often leading to permanent injuries and sometimes death.
- Sexual abuse – rape, forced sexual acts, sexual degradation
- Emotional abuse – intimidation, bullying, constant criticism, keeping someone locked up and isolated from family and friends.
- Threats – to harm your family, to take your children away, to put pictures on the internet, to kill you.
Women’s Aid defines domestic abuse as "a pattern of abusive and controlling behaviour in close or intimate relationships. It includes physical, emotional, sexual and mental abuse"
Anyone can experience domestic abuse regardless of race, ethnic or religious group, disability or lifestyle.
Domestic Abuse destroys both victims' and children’s lives.