Want more information? Need answers to: 'what is domestic violence?' Find answers to some of your basic questions on domestic violence here.
The Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence defines domestic violence as:
"A pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviors that adults or adolescents use against their current or former intimate partners."
Statistics:
- One in three women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
- Battering is the major cause of injury to women ages 14-45, causing more injury than auto accidents, muggings and rapes combined (Barnes Jewish Hospital, 2002).
- Intimate partner violence occurs across all populations, irrespective of social, economic, religious, or cultural group. Recent research is indicating, however, that young women and those below the poverty line are disproportionately affected (Heise & Garcia-Moreno, 2002)
- The cost of violence against women exceeds an estimated $5.8 billion. These costs include nearly $4.1 billion in direct costs of medical and mental health care and nearly $1.8 billion in the indirect costs of lost productivity (Centers for Disease Control, 2003)
- Victims of domestic violence lose a total of nearly 8 million days of paid work – the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs – and nearly 5.6 million days of household productivity each year as a result of violence (Centers for Disease Control, 2003).
Types of Domestic Violence:
- Physical Abuse
Physical abuse is what is most commonly associated with domestic violence, but in some cases is not the first type of abuse that is used against a victim. Physical abuse includes shoving, pushing, hitting, restraining, kicking and using objects to harm one’s partner. Physical abuse can also include depriving a victim of sleep, medical attention or food. Physical assaults may be common or infrequent, but generally speaking, physical abuse escalates in severity over time.
- Psychological Abuse/Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse is a common type of abuse that many people do not recognize as abuse, and in some cases is the first type of abuse to be used against a victim. Emotional abuse includes isolation from family and friends; berating or belittling the ability, skills, education, appearance or beliefs of a partner; withholding affection or approval; threatening to harm or kidnap children; and/or humiliating a partner in public.
- Sexual Abuse/Rape
Any time that one partner forces sexual acts that are unwanted to declined by the other partner. Examples of this could include: forcing a partner to engage in sex or in sexual acts that the other partner is uncomfortable with, use of manipulation or coercion for sex, the use of physical or emotional abuse during sex, and/or the denial of the use of contraceptives. Even in a marriage or dating relationship, the law recognizes the forcing of sex or sexual acts upon a partner as rape.
- Economic Abuse
Economic abuse, like the other types of abuse, is used to control a partner. Economic abuse includes forced economic dependence through controlling money and money related decisions, sabotaging efforts of one partner to work or go to school, and/or ruining credit.