Domestic Violence: Not What it Seems

What is domestic violence and emotional abuse? What are the differences? Domestic violence and emotional abuse are behaviors used by one person in a relationship to control the other person. The extent of these relationships can vary. They may be romantic, platonic, family or friends. In a romantic relationship, the partners do not have to be married, living together or even completely dating for abuse to occur. 

Domestic violence can be criminal, sexual, emotional, psychological or financial.

Some examples include sexual assault, intimidation, stalking, physical harm, name calling, prohibiting family contact or withholding money. This type of violence can happen all of the time or only once in a great while. Anyone can be a victim. Age, sex, culture, religion, education, employment status or marital status typically does not matter. Women generally are more abused but men certainly see their fair share. 

Many people who are being abused do not see themselves as victims. It is possible in some situations that the abusers do not see themselves as abusive. This can happen because the violence is not necessarily physical, but may be a different type as mentioned previously. 

If children reside in homes where abuse occurs, they typically are neglected or abused themselves. In most of these instances, children know about the violence. That goes to say that even if a child is not physically harmed, emotional problems may take dominance. This type of situation may have potential negative lasting effects on these children for the rest of their lives because of what happens in these situations. 

Domestic violence is everybody’s business. If it is not happening to you per se, it may be happening to someone you know or associate with. You may not know that this type of behavior is happening, but indeed it does happen. If we can all work together in preventing this issue, it will be another issue left off the books.