Domestic and Family Violence

Understanding Domestic and Family Violence

Domestic and family violence involves abusive, threatening, or coercive behaviour used to control or dominate another person. Coercive control is a form of domestic and family violence that involves an ongoing and persistent pattern of behaviour intended to undermine a person’s independence, confidence, sense of safety, or ability to seek help. This behaviour may involve control, intimidation, or actions that confine someone in an invisible cage of fear, leaving them feeling powerless and anxious for their own or their loved ones' safety and wellbeing.

Forms of Abusive Behaviour

Domestic and family violence can take many forms, including:

• Physical or sexual abuse — such as hitting, pushing, strangulation, or unwanted sexual contact. This may also include forcing participation in unwanted practices.

• Isolation and social abuse — such as isolating someone from family and friends, restricting their work or social activities, controlling their appearance, sabotaging social outings, or making accusations of affairs.

• Emotional or psychological abuse — such as belittling, degrading comments, threats of suicide, or mind games that undermine confidence and self-worth.

• Economic abuse — such as limiting access to money, demanding unreasonable financial control, or forcing someone to hand over funds, assets, or take out loans.

• Threatening behaviour — such as using threats to force certain actions, including threats to harm children, pets, or others.

• Verbal abuse — such as insults, name-calling, lying, or dominating conversations.

• Stalking & Monitoring — such as excessive texts or calls, monitoring social media, driving past home or work, turning up unexpectedly, following someone in public, or vandalising property.

• Technology-facilitated abuse — such as tracking someone’s location through devices, monitoring financial or personal accounts, or sharing intimate images online.

• Spiritual abuse — Misusing scripture or religious beliefs to control, dominate, or harm; this may include demanding obedience through distorted teachings, preventing or forcing religious practices, using spiritual language to shame or manipulate, exploiting faith to silence victims, or isolating individuals within their faith community.

• Litigation abuse — Misusing legal processes to control, intimidate, or harm a victim, often through excessive filings, false claims, or prolonged court proceedings.

Additionally, encouraging or directing someone else to engage in abusive, controlling, or violent behaviour towards a current or former partner is also considered domestic violence.

While domestic and family violence may occur as a single incident, it is often part of an ongoing pattern of abuse that causes victims to live in fear of their partner or former partner.