Ten Things To Know About Domestic Violence

1. Domestic violence is rarely an isolated incident. Whether outwardly visible or not, domestic violence is identified by an established pattern of coercive control of one partner over the other. Power is held by the abuser, fear is experienced by the victim.

2. Batterers’ tactics are usually broader than physical violence and threats of physical violence. Regularly reported tactics include: stalking and extreme monitoring of a victim’s activities and communications; sexual abuse including marital rape; social isolation; threats of suicide; threats or actual abuse against children, other family members and pets; financial abuse; withholding access to money, transportation or medical services; interference with a victim’s work or education; emotional and psychological abuse; and utilizing systems such as child welfare, law enforcement, courts and immigration as threats against a victim.

3. Domestic violence is perpetrated by batterers across all socio-economic classes and cultures. The impact of class and culture on domestic violence is significant in terms of creating additional barriers to safety, resources available to victims and responses to perpetrators.

4. Domestic violence occurs in all types of relationships, heterosexual or homosexual.

5. Males can be victims, although because this is rarer, services are accessed to a much lesser degree by male victims. Most DV programs do provide victim services, support and emergency shelter to males as well as females.

6. Research does not support substance abuse, mental illness or economic hardship as causes of domestic violence, though each of these may also be present in a case.

7. Separation or leaving is the deadliest time in domestic violence. Risk for serious injury and deaths are escalated for the victim, children, other family members, bystanders, co-workers, friends, companions, partners, and the batterer. Leaving, calling law enforcement, emergency shelter and protection orders may or may not make a victim safer.

8. Separation is a process. Consider where in the process a victim may be/have been in leaving or ending a relationship: enrolling in school, making an appointment with an attorney, seeking an order of protection, attending counseling or a support group, entering a new relationship.

9. Domestic violence is gender-based violence. Women are considerably more victimized than men. Women are much more likely to be killed by a current or former partner than by a stranger. Male domestic homicide victims are most frequently killed by men. Male victims are often friends, family members or new partners of the victim.

10. Domestic violence is a community problem as much as it is an isolated family problem. It impacts community safety, healthcare, criminal justice, court dockets, state policy, government budgets, workplaces, child development and education.


Ohio Domestic Violence Network, 2011