Dimensions of DA
If you are reading this, you probably have lived experience with domestic violence and want to learn about how researchers are trying to tackle the issue. You may be worried about yourself, your partner, or a loved one. Either way, you are in the right place. Below is a brief overview of academic evidence on the types and dimensions of domestic abuse. On all of our pages, you can click on the graphics to get further information from our sources.
Abuse Comes in Many Forms
Some Are Well Known
Physical Abuse
- Hitting
- Throwing
- Breaking objects
- Pushing
- Restraining
- etc.
Verbal Abuse
- Yelling
- Threatening
- Name calling
- Gaslighting (makes you question your sanity with manipulation)
- etc.
Sexual Abuse
- Unwanted contact
- Unwanted acts
- Coercion
- Disrespecting boundaries
- etc.
Others are Less Well Known
Financial Abuse occurs when someone uses money to control another. This can happen if one partner restricts the other’s access to their own, or shared, finances.
Relational Abuse occurs when someone intentionally harms another person’s relationships. This can be done by spreading rumours, badmouthing, sabotaging, and/or limiting someone else’s social contact.
Abuse also Lies on Spectrums
Reactive aggression is usually unplanned and emotional. It occurs in response to some sort of upset.
Proactive aggression is usually planned and less emotional. It could occur in response to an upset, but the person had planned to aggress.
General aggression occurs when someone uses aggression in a variety of contexts. This could include the home, work, sports, bars, etc.
Situational aggression occurs when someone uses aggression only in a specific (usually intimate) context. Many people who are aggressive at home may appear unaggressive elsewhere.
Mild abuse includes things like name calling and put downs. Mild abuse is still abuse, and all abuse is unacceptable.
Severe abuse can reach the level of “intimate terrorism” where one partner violently controls the other using a variety of tactics. Studies show that a survivor’s fear of future harm is often quite accurate.
Most domestic abuse is reactive and situational, but ranges in severity
This means that it can be very difficult to tell when someone is experiencing abuse.
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