What is domestic violence?
Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behavior that takes many forms – emotional, psychological, verbal, physical, financial, sexual and other forms of abuse. Domestic violence doesn’t have to include all of the different forms to be abusive.
Emotional and verbal abuse IS domestic violence. Do you walk on eggshells? Does your partner belittle you? Call you names? Isolate you from friends and family? Constantly jealous and accusing you of being unfaithful? Any of these can be signs of abusive behavior.
Physical abuse includes pushing, slapping, hitting, biting, shoving, punching, and other forms. Sexual abuse includes pressure to be intimate, pressure to participate in sexual acts that you are uncomfortable with, and other forms of forced intimacy up to and including rape.