Domestic violence

Domestic violence, by barest definition, is violence within a home. Beyond this, the term has a range of definitions, some more and some less formal, which are frequently used with little awareness that a range of definitions exists.

Definitions

The UK Home Office

In its annual UK Crime Survey http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs04/hors276.pdf, the British government defined domestic violence as:

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:Any violence between current or former partners in an intimate relationship, wherever and whenever the violence occurs. The violence may include physical, sexual, emotional or financial abuse.

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For classification purposes it breaks the term down into sexual and non-sexual abuse, and each of these into further sub-categories illustrated by example:

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Non-sexual

Abuse

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• Prevented you from having your fair share of the household money
• Stopped you from seeing friends and relatives

Threat

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• Frightened you, by threatening to hurt you or someone close to you

Force - minor

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• Pushed you, held or pinned you down or slapped you

Force - major

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• Kicked you, bit you, or hit you with a fist or something else, or threw something at you that hurt you
• Choked or tried to strangle you
• Threatened you with a weapon, such as a stick or a knife
• Threatened to kill you
• Used a weapon against you, e.g. a knife, gun

Sexual

Rape - 1994 definition

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• Penetration of the vagina or anus by the penis without consent
• Penetrated the vagina with a penis, even if only slightly
• Penetrated the anus with a penis even if only slightly
• Attempted to penetrate the vagina with a penis, but did not succeed
• Attempted to penetrate the anus with a penis but did not succeed

Rape - additional 2003 definition

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• In addition to the 1994 definition, penetration of the mouth by penis without consent:
• Penetrated mouth with a penis even if only slightly
• Attempted to penetrate mouth with a penis but did not succeed

Assault by penetration - 2003 (new offence)

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• Penetration of the vagina or anus by other body parts or objects
• Penetrated the vagina with an object (including fingers) even if only slightly
• Penetrated the anus with an object (including fingers) even if only slightly
• Attempted to penetrate vagina with an object (including fingers) but did not succeed
• Attempted to penetrate anus with an object (including fingers) but did not succeed

CAFCASS

CAFCASS, whilst mentioning in its Domestic Violence Policy http://www.cafcass.gov.uk/English/Publications/consultation/04DecDV%20Policy.pdf that it uses the term domestic violence to refer to a range of violent and abusive behaviours, defines it as:

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• Patterns of behaviour characterised by the misuse of power and control by one person over another who are or have been in an intimate relationship. It can occur in mixed gender relationships and same gender relationships and has profound consequences for the lives of children, individuals, families and communities. It may be physical, sexual, emotional and/or psychological. The latter may include intimidation, harassment, damage to property, threats and financial abuse.

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 has extended the definition of harm (within the meaning of the Children Act 1989) to include harm suffered from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another, such as harm caused by witnessing domestic violence.

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Women's Aid

This woman's self-help group defines domestic violence http://www.womensaid.org.uk/about/what_is_dv.htm as:

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:Domestic violence is physical, psychological, sexual or financial violence that takes place within an intimate or family-type relationship and forms a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour. Crime statistics and research both show that domestic violence is gender-specific - usually the perpetrator of a pattern of repeated assaults is a man.

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The UK Home Office statistics indicate that male-on-female repeated assaults are about twice as common as female-on-male repeated assaults.Table 2.5 This is the opposite to the findings of the US National Family Violence Survey, which has consistently indicated in repeated studies for more than 30 years that females initiate domestic assault at more than twice the rate of men.

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Other definitions

The New York State Coalition defines domestic violence as "abusive behavior - emotional, psychological, physical, or sexual - that one person in an intimate relationship uses in order to control the other. It takes many different forms and includes behaviors such as threats, name-calling, preventing contact with family or friends, withholding money, actual or threatened physical harm and sexual assault. Stalking can also be a form of domestic violence." http://www.nyscadv.org/domesticviolence.htm

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Domestic

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• Family relationship, explicit and formal or informal, usually between adults of similar age, else it is labeled child abuse or child molestation for children, and elder abuse for older adults.
• Romantic relationships including marriages, cohabitation, and dating relationships, sexual and nonsexual, exclusive or nonexclusive, heterosexual or homosexual.

Violence

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• Physical violence
• Direct physical violence, ranging from murder and rape to unwanted physical contact.
• Indirect physical violence, including destruction of objects, throwing objects near the victim, harm to animals
• Mental/emotional violence
• Verbal threats of physical violence to the victim, the self, or others including children, ranging from explicit, detailed and impending to implicit and vague as to both content and time frame
• Verbal violence, including threats, insults, put-downs, attacks
• Nonverbal threats, including gestures, facial expressions, body postures
• Economic/social abuse
• Controlling victim's money and other economic resources, preventing victim from seeing friends and relatives, actively sabotaging victim's social relationships and isolating victim from social contacts.

The term "domestic violence" replaced "wife beating" or "wife battering" which came before. In its turn, it has begun to be replaced with more descriptive terms such as "relationship violence", "domestic abuse", "violence against a spouse", "spousal abuse" and "family violence". The term has been defined legally in some jurisdictions, which can add further confusion when members of the justice system interact with domestic violence advocates.

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Cycle of violence

Frequently, domestic violence is used to describe specific violent and overtly abusive incidents, and legal definitions will tend to take this perspective. However, when violent and abusive behaviors happen within a relationship, the effects of those behaviors continue after these overt incidents are over. Advocates and counselors will refer to domestic violence as a pattern of behaviors, including those listed above.

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Lenore Walker presented the model of a "Cycle of Violence" which consists of three basic phases:

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;Honeymoon Phase:Characterized by affection, apology, apparent end of violence.

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;Tension Building Phase:Characterized by poor communication, tension, fear of causing outbursts,

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;Acting-out Phase:Characterized by outbursts of violent, abusive incidents.

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Although it is easy to see the outbursts of the Acting-out Phase as abuse, even the more pleasant behaviors of the Honeymoon Phase serve to perpetuate the abuse. See also the cycle of abuse article.

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