What Is Domestic Abuse?

The common definition of Domestic Abuse is ‘any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse, (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality’. It is often accompanied by degradation, humiliation, deprivation, systematic criticism and belittling

The Home Office acknowledges that Domestic Abuse includes culturally specific forms of harm which impact on Black Minority Ethnic women and which may among others  include forced marriage, dowry related abuse, female genital mutilation and honour based Domestic Abuse.

Domestic Abuse is a serious crime and if you recognise that you or a relative or friend are experiencing any of the below you can talk in confidence or access help and support from these helplines in an emergency never hesitate to dial 999.

Abusers will make lots of excuses for their behaviour, often telling you they were drunk, stressed or depressed and that they just lost control.

Often following an assault they will tell you that they love you and can’t live without you, and that this will never happen again.  They may even tell you that they will take their own life or yours and the lives of the children, if you leave them. 

They will attempt to blame you, deny that they are abusive and lie about the sequence of events. 

Domestic Abuse takes many forms, here we have listed just a few examples to give you an idea of the different types of abuse.

Aspects of physical violence

Aspects of emotional abuse