Types of Abuse

Physical Abuse

• Pinching, squeezing
  
• Pushing, shoving
• Jerking, pulling, shaking
• Slapping, biting
• Hitting, punching, kicking,
• Throwing objects, using objects as weapons
• Restraining
• Hitting stomach during pregnancy
• Preventing the victim from access to physical care, food or medication

Effects. Victims subject to continual physical abuse will often face permanent injury or disfigurement. Extreme physical abuse can lead to death.

Sexual Abuse

• Treating victim as sex object
• Harassing the victim about imagined affairs
• Unwanted touching
• Uncomfortable touching
• Forcing or demanding sex
• Sexual name calling or accusation
• Withholding information about past sexually transmitted diseases and/or current HIV status
• Forced pregnancy or termination of pregnancy
  

Effects. Victims who have been sexually abused feel an enormous loss of control over their lives. They feel they cannot trust anyone who is close to them and will feel that their own sense of judgment is undermined.

Isolation

• Preventing the victim from contact with friends or family
• Preventing the victim from having freedom of movement
• Cutting the victim off from community, ideas and resources
• Restricting the victim's access to education or employment
• Sabotaging new relationships if the victim takes steps to end the abusive relationship
  

Effects. Victims who are isolated from the rest of society by batterers do not have anyone to talk to about the abusive relationship. Batters define the world for victims, then interpret information to victims to force acceptance of the abuse. The batter becomes the only important thing in the victim's life. For victims with disabilities, GLBT (gays, lesbians, bi-sexual, transgendered persons) victims, or other groups marginalized by mainstream society, isolation takes on increased potency.

Minimizing, Denying, Blaming

• Convincing victims that what happens to them is their own fault
  
• Victims are led to believe that their own actions caused the abuse, that the abuse is not as bad as it seems, or that what happened is not abuse
• Batterers will often claim that because they do not use physical violence they are not abusive
• Batterers may blame stress or alcohol for their violent behavior
  

Effects. Minimizing, denying, and/or blaming make seeking help or being believed by others very difficult for victims.

Using Children

• Instilling feelings of guilt and incompetence on the victim based  on their perceived parenting skills
• Turning children against the victim, using them as pawns, forcing them into dangerous acts, threatening to take them, and not following visitation schedules
• Fighting for custody when the abuser has never been the primary caretaker
  

Effects. Not only victims of domestic violence are hurt when children are involved. Children may be subject to physical or sexual abuse, or they may witness violence in the home. Some batterers are successful in securing custody of children, subjecting them to an increased risk of abuse.

Using Social Status and Privilege

• Reinforcing control over the victim based on gender, race, class, sexual orientation, immigration status, occupation, wealth, physical or developmental ability
• Male batterers in heterosexual relationships will often make decisions that affect the entire family without concern for the other members
• Male violent partners may believe that sexism and traditional male and female stereotypes justify the abuse

Effects. When male privilege is used, the family begins to believe that the batterer is, in fact, dominant and they are second-class citizens, never questioning the authority of the batterer or making decisions on their own.

Economic Abuse

• Batterers control the money  and do not allow victims to have access to cash or bank accounts
• Batterers will often give victims an allowance and force them to account for every penny spent, even if it is the  victim's own money.
• If the batterer and victim are separated, the batterer will often withhold child or spousal support

Effects. Using economic abuse makes it very difficult for victims to leave abusive relationships, as they do not have the resources. Victims are often unable to obtain housing, food, or clothing for themselves or their children if they do not have access to an income.

Coercion and Threats

• Batterers use threats to paralyze the victim from taking action, often preventing them from leaving the relationship
• Threats of death, suicide, and kidnapping the children are common
• Many threats force victims to contradict their personal values. Victims may be forced to steal, use drugs, or commit other crimes at the hands of the batterer.

Effects. The threat presented to the victim is often so intimidating that the alternative to the threat (remaining in the abusive relationship) is better than the consequences for leaving.

Intimidation

• Batterers will often intimidate victims by threatening or hurting pets, harassing victim's friends or family members, setting fires, wielding weapons, slamming doors, or making violent gestures
• Intimidation is also used when batterers threaten to report the victim to welfare or immigration

Effects. Batterers use intimidation to maintain the power and control that has been established through other forms of violence. Intimidation, periodically reinforced with an assault, makes violence a daily part of the victim's reality, therefore making the victim easier to control.

Emotional Abuse

• Emotional abuse humiliates the victim through name calling and insulting a victim's intelligence, ability, and/or self-esteem
• Victims receive constant negative messages about who they are and what they do
• Batterers will also withhold affection to the victim as a form of punishment

Effects. Victims feel as worthless as the batterers say they are. They have little or no self-esteem and feel their situation is completely hopeless. They believe that they must have somehow caused the abuse because of their negative qualities.