Domestic abuse means any threats, violence, controlling or coercive behaviour that takes place between family members or people aged over 16 who are in a relationship with each other, or have been in the past.
Domestic abuse can have many forms. This can include, but is not limited to:
- physical abuse
- psychological and emotional abuse
- financial abuse
- sexual abuse
- digital abuse
- coercive control
Physical abuse
Physical abuse can include:
- assault (punching, kicking, slapping)
- biting
- strangulation
- using weapons against you
- threatening to hurt you or someone you care about
- giving you too much or too little of your medicine
- punching walls or breaking things
- throwing objects
Psychological and emotional abuse
Psychological and emotional abuse can include:
- verbal abuse
- controlling who you talk to and see
- isolating you from friends and family
- being told you are a bad parent and threatening to have children taken from you
- constantly putting you down
- calling you names and mocking behaviour which makes you feel bad
- stalking
- harassment
- shouting and intimidating behaviour
- jealous and possessive behaviour
Financial and economic abuse
Financial and economic abuse can include:
- controlling all the household income and keeping financial information secret
- not allowing you access to money or deliberately providing too little money
- forcing you to leave your job or preventing you getting a job
- taking out debts in your name without your knowledge
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse can include:
- forcing you to have sex when you don’t want to
- sexual assault
- sharing or threatening to share explicit images
- threatening, guilting, or manipulating you into sexual acts
- forced prostitution
- forced to watch or act in pornography
Digital abuse
Digital abuse can include:
- having access to your phone, email, and social media - you have a right to privacy
- using apps or GPS to constantly track your location
- having access to your online banking
- monitoring your social media
- not allowing you access to technology, including your phone and the intranet
- sharing intimate photos of you online, also known as revenge porn
- using cameras or spyware to listen to your conversations
Coercive control
Coercive control is an act or pattern of acts which allow someone to gain or keep control of a partner, ex-partner, or family member, making them dependent on the perpetrator. It can include:
- gaslighting
- isolating you from family and friends
- controlling finances
- monitoring your activities, including online
- using sexual coercion
- taking control of parts of your everyday life, including where you can go, what can you wear, who you can see, when you can sleep
- depriving you access to support services, such as medical services
- making threats and being intimidating
- repeatedly putting you down, degrading, humiliating, and dehumanising you
- using your pets to control you, this can include threatening, harming, or killing them