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Understanding Family Violence
Home - Understanding Family Violence
What Is Family Violence?
What is family, domestic, and sexual violence?
Family violence is a term used for violence that occurs within family relationships, such as between parents and children, siblings, intimate partners or kinship relationships. Family relationships can include carers, foster carers and co-residents (for example in group homes or boarding residences).
Domestic violence is a type of family violence that occurs between current or former intimate partners (sometimes referred to as intimate partner violence).
Both family violence and domestic violence include a range of behaviour types such as:
physical violence (for example, hitting, choking, or burning)sexual violence (for example, rape, penetration by objects, unwanted touching)emotional abuse, also known as psychological abuse (for example, intimidating, humiliating).
Domestic violence is a type of family violence that occurs between current or former intimate partners (sometimes referred to as intimate partner violence).
Both family violence and domestic violence include a range of behaviour types such as:
physical violence (for example, hitting, choking, or burning)sexual violence (for example, rape, penetration by objects, unwanted touching)emotional abuse, also known as psychological abuse (for example, intimidating, humiliating).
What is gender-based violence?
Gender-based violence (GBV) is an umbrella term for harmful acts of abuse perpetrated against a person’s will and rooted in a system of unequal power between women and men. This is true for both conflict-affected and non-conflict settings.
The UN defines violence against women as, ‘any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.
Over one-third of women and girls globally will experience some form of violence in their lifetime. However, this rate is higher in emergencies, conflict, and crisis, where vulnerability and risks are increased and most often family, community, and legal protections have broken down.
The harm caused by GBV comes in a variety of visible and invisible forms—it also includes the threat of violence.
GBV can manifest in a variety of ways. Some of these include: physical violence, such as assault or slavery; emotional or psychological violence, such as verbal abuse or confinement; sexual abuse, including rape; harmful practices, like child marriage and female genital mutilation; socio-economic violence, which includes denial of resources; and sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse.
The UN defines violence against women as, ‘any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.
Over one-third of women and girls globally will experience some form of violence in their lifetime. However, this rate is higher in emergencies, conflict, and crisis, where vulnerability and risks are increased and most often family, community, and legal protections have broken down.
The harm caused by GBV comes in a variety of visible and invisible forms—it also includes the threat of violence.
GBV can manifest in a variety of ways. Some of these include: physical violence, such as assault or slavery; emotional or psychological violence, such as verbal abuse or confinement; sexual abuse, including rape; harmful practices, like child marriage and female genital mutilation; socio-economic violence, which includes denial of resources; and sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse.
Types Of Abuse
What are the types of domestic violence and abuse?
Abusive relationships do not always involve physical violence. There are other kinds of damaging abuse, none of which are acceptable. The abuser can be of any gender or sexual orientation.
Types of abuse include:
- Physical Abuse: direct assault on the body, such as strangulation, slapping, punching, kicking, shaking or pushing. It may also include using weapons or objects. Physical abuse can also include throwing objects, the denial of food and the destruction of property.
- Coercive Control: deliberate, ongoing behaviour to control another person. The abuser may repeatedly hurt, scare or isolate the person.
- Sexual Abuse: any form of rape, unwanted or forced sexual activity, sexual threats and insults, restricting access to contraception or refusing to wear a condom.
- Verbal Abuse: intimidation, verbal attacks, threats, insults, name-calling, yelling or humiliation. Themes might relate to body shape, sexuality, gender identity, intelligence or ability as a parent.
- Psychological or Emotional Abuse: blaming or ignoring the person (‘sulking’), treating the person as inferior, saying their behaviour is inappropriate, questioning their sense of reality, emotional blackmail or suicide threats. The perpetrator might also stalk, spy on or follow the person. This may include monitoring emails or phone calls and using GPS tracking.
- Social Isolation: isolating the victim from their family and friends, such as forbidding or preventing contact with them and ongoing rudeness to family and friends. The perpetrator might insist the person moves far away from family support or employment opportunities.
- Financial Abuse: maintaining control of family finances, including restricting access to bank accounts, wages or pensions, providing a small ‘allowance’, hiding assets, preventing the person from working, sabotaging interviews or meetings, and theft.
- Spiritual Abuse: ridiculing a person’s religious beliefs and culture or preventing them from being part of a religion or cultural group.
- Child Abuse: physical and sexual abuse, neglect, verbal and emotional abuse of a child.
- Elder Abuse: all forms of abuse directed at older adults.
- Neglect: failing to meet the basic physical or psychological needs of a person you’re caring for, such as a child. This might include failing to protect them from physical harm or danger, or stopping them from getting medical care. It can also be neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, the other person’s basic emotional needs.
Early Warning Signs Of Abuse
What are the early warning signs of abuse?
It is uncommon for a person to become highly abusive in a relationship straight away, often they will first start trying to gain power over their partner in small, subtle ways. These early warning signs or ‘red flags’ are an indication that a relationship has become unhealthy and could escalate into family violence.
Some early warning signs of family and domestic violence may include:
- Checking your social media or phone without your permission
- Trying to limit you from seeing your family and friends or preventing you from doing things you enjoy
- Making you feel scared, anxious or intimated
- Trying to keep in constant contact with you during the day and becoming angry if you are unresponsive
- Putting you down or criticising you
- Making you feel as though everything you do is wrong
- Accusing you of being unfaithful or flirting with others
- Needing to know where you are all the time
- Controlling aspects of your life, for example what you wear or who you spend your time with
- Telling you that you never do anything right.
- Showing extreme jealousy of your friends or time spent away from them.
- Preventing or discouraging you from spending time with others, particularly friends, family members, or peers.
- Insulting, demeaning, or shaming you, especially in front of other people.
- Preventing you from making your own decisions, including about working or attending school.
- Controlling finances in the household without discussion, such as taking your money or refusing to provide money for necessary expenses.
- Pressuring you to have sex or perform sexual acts you’re not comfortable with.
- Pressuring you to use drugs or alcohol.
- Intimidating you through threatening looks or actions.
- Insulting your parenting or threatening to harm or take away your children or pets.
- Intimidating you with weapons like guns, knives, bats, or mace.
- Destroying your belongings or your home