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What is Domestic Abuse? (25 November 2016)

Date: 25/11/2016


Domestic violence is not limited to any race, ethnic or religious group. It does not discriminate on gender, sexuality, disability or lifestyle.

The cross-government definition of domestic abuse is: “any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. The abuse can encompass, but is not limited to: psychological, physical, sexual, financial and emotional”. This includes issues of concern to black and minority ethnic (BME) communities such as so-called 'honour killings', female genital mutilation, forced marriages.

When it comes to describing domestic violence it’s easy to identify the life threatening and intimidating behaviours such as physical and sexual abuse, harassment, pestering and stalking. But there are also the more subtle forms of abuse, such as controlling and coercive behaviour, and financial, emotional and psychological abuse. This may include, but is not limited to, belittling and humiliating a person, running up debts in the victim’s name and taking money from them. Controlling and coercive behaviour may encompass taking away a person’s freedom, telling them how to dress or isolating them, not allowing them to see friends or family.

The LGBTQ community are affected in a very similar way to heterosexual people but the perpetrator can also threaten to ‘out’ the victim to their family or friends, as a means of controlling them. LGBTQ people may worry that they will not be believed or that they will be judged because of their sexuality, making it a highly sensitive issue for them to report the abuse.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales in 2014/2015 estimated 1.3 million females and 600,000 males have experienced some form of domestic abuse. While this is a staggering amount, the grave reality is that this figure is much higher as many of those suffering from domestic abuse either do not realise that they are, are too afraid to reach out for help, or feel they do not have a voice to speak up.

At Duncan Lewis we will help people take steps to protect themselves and their family. Sometimes it is enough for a warning letter to be sent to the perpetrator and other times we will go to court to obtain an injunction for the victim’s protection. For more information please visit our domestic violence page HERE

Please call our confidential domestic violence helpline on 0800 689 3275. If you feel your life is in danger, call the police on 999.

Call us now on 033 3772 0409 or click here to send online enquiry.
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