Types of Domestic and Sexual Abuse

Domestic abuse (sometimes called 'domestic violence' or 'intimate partner violence') is an incident or a pattern of behaviour that is used by someone to control or obtain power over their partner or ex-partner. It is never the fault of the person who is experiencing it, and it is a crime.

Source: Refuge: 'What is domestic abuse'.

The Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) 2024/2025 statistics show that on average, police attend a domestic abuse incident every 17 minutes of every day.

What forms can domestic abuse take?

A common myth is that it's only domestic abuse if it involves physical or sexual violence. In fact, many women experience domestic abuse without ever being physically harmed. Remember: non-physical forms of abuse can be as destructive and as undermining as physical violence.

Domestic abuse could involve threatening, controlling, or coercive behaviour, as well as different forms of harm such as psychological, emotional, physical, sexual, financial, verbal, or online abuse.

'Sexual violence' is a term we use to describe any sexual activity that happened without consent. This includes rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse and sexual harassment (to name just a few).

Source: Rape Crisis England & Wales: 'Types of sexual violence'

Sexual violence and abuse can involve any behaviour of a sexual nature whether physical, psychological, verbal, or online that is unwanted, makes someone feel uncomfortable, pressured, controlled, or unsafe, or causes harm or distress.

It can happen to anyone, regardless of age, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Emotional and psychological abuse is the regular and deliberate use of words and non-physical actions to manipulate, hurt, weaken or frighten a person and to distort, confuse or influence their thoughts and actions. It is also referred to as emotional abuse.

Signs of psychological abuse

It can be hard to spot the signs of psychological abuse. Victims may not understand that what they're experiencing is abuse.

Psychological abuse includes things like:

• gaslighting, or making someone question their own thinking or understanding of reality
• shifting the blame to the victim, for example by presenting insults as a joke
• criticism, humiliation or put-downs
• silent treatment
• controlling who someone can speak to, meet or spend time with
• suggesting the victim is mentally unstable.

Source: Safe Lives: 'Psychological abuse'

Physical abuse is defined as any intentional act causing injury or trauma to another person through bodily contact. It is a deliberate act of force that results in harm, injury, or trauma to the victim's body.

This can include a range of behaviours from hitting, slapping, and punching to more severe forms of violence. Physical abuse can have serious consequences for the well-being of the survivor, potentially leading to psychological conditions and complications.

Source: Torbay and Devon Safeguarding Adults Partnership: 'Physical abuse and non-fatal strangulation'

Non-fatal strangulation

The practice typically involves a perpetrator strangling or intentionally affecting their victim's ability to breathe in an attempt to control or intimidate them.

Strangulation often leaves little to no visible signs, but internal damage can be severe.

Studies have shown that victims are eight times more likely to be murdered by their partner if there had been non-fatal strangulation beforehand.

In Northern Ireland, non-fatal strangulation has been made a specific, standalone criminal offence as part of the Justice (Sexual offences & trafficking victims) Act (NI) 2022.

A person found guilty of this could face up to 14 years in prison.

Source: PSNI: 'Non-Fatal Strangulation'

Coercive control is a type of domestic abuse.

It involves the abuser using violence, threats, intimidation, humiliation to control or manipulate another person. The aim is to make the person feel dependent, frightened, or unable to make their own choices. This behaviour often happens alongside other abusive behaviours, including physical, sexual and financial abuse.

The UK government defines controlling or coercive behaviour as:

• Acts designed to make a person feel inferior and/or dependent by keeping them apart from friends, help and support. It can include taking advantage of their money and things they have, stopping their independence, and controlling what they want to do.
• An act of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish or frighten the victim.

Source: Home Office: 'Controlling or Coercive Behaviour, Statutory Guidance, What the police and organisations should do to keep victims safe. April 2022'.

What is Harassment?

Harassment is a pattern of repeated, unwanted behaviour that can make someone feel distressed, frightened, or unsafe.

It can take many forms and may happen in person, online, or through other means.

Harassment can include:

• Unwanted contact, such as calls, messages, emails, or online communication
• Turning up at someone's home, workplace, or other places they spend time
• Following, watching, or monitoring someone
• Sending unwanted items or messages
• Damaging property
• Threats of harm, including threats to others close to them
• Contacting or targeting friends, family, or colleagues
• In some cases, physical or sexual harm

Everyone's experience is different, and not all behaviours may be obvious at first. If something feels distressing or makes you feel unsafe, it is important to take that feeling seriously.

Support is available, and you do not have to deal with this on your own.

What is Stalking?

Stalking is a pattern of repeated, unwanted behaviour that can make someone feel distressed, frightened, or unsafe. It often involves ongoing contact or monitoring that feels intrusive or controlling.

While the term "stalking" is commonly used, in Northern Ireland it is usually dealt with under harassment laws.

Stalking behaviours can include:

• Repeated calls, messages, emails, or online contact
• Sending unwanted items or leaving messages or gifts
• Following, watching, or monitoring someone
• Turning up at someone's home, workplace, or other places they spend time
• Approaching or confronting someone in person

Some behaviours may seem harmless on their own, but when they happen repeatedly or as part of a pattern, they can have a serious impact.

Stalking may also involve:

• Making threats or causing fear
• Damaging property
• Contacting people close to you
• Misusing services (for example, ordering items in your name or making complaints about you)

If this is happening to you, your feelings are valid. Support is available, and you do not have to manage this on your own.

What is digital and online abuse?

Digital and online abuse is a type of abuse where technology is used to control, threaten, monitor, or harm someone.

This can happen through phones, social media, messaging apps, email, or other online platforms.

It is often part of a wider pattern of abuse, including coercive control.

Digital and online abuse can include:

• Sending repeated, unwanted messages or calls
• Monitoring your activity (e.g. tracking location, checking devices or accounts)
• Controlling who you can speak to online
• Threatening to share personal or private information
• Impersonating you or accessing your accounts without permission
• Harassment or abuse on social media

Image-based and sexual abuse online

Some forms of digital abuse involve the creation or sharing of sexual images without consent. This can include:

• "Revenge porn": sharing intimate images without consent
• Sextortion: threatening to share images to control or blackmail someone
• Cyberflashing: sending unsolicited sexual images
• Upskirting or down-blousing: taking images without consent
• Deepfakes: creating fake sexual images or videos using someone's likeness

These behaviours are serious and can be criminal offences.

Financial abuse is the mistreatment of someone in terms of their money or assets, such as their property. Financial abuse often occurs alongside other forms of abuse.

Financial abuse can include:

• money being stolen or misused
• fraud
• exploiting someone's financial affairs
• restricting someone's access to money, employment or possessions
• pressuring and coercing someone about their will, lasting power of attorney, property or inheritance.

Source: Age UK: 'What is financial abuse?'

Human Trafficking

The Act of recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

Human trafficking is made up of three elements:

• Movement or recruitment by
• Deception or coercion for
• The purpose of exploitation

The scale of the issue

• 71% of trafficking victims around the world are women and girls
• 29% are men and boys.

Source: Stop The Traffik, 'What is Human Trafficking?'

Sexual Exploitation

Sexual exploitation is a form of abuse where a person is manipulated, deceived, pressured, or forced into sexual activity. It often involves an imbalance of power, where someone takes advantage of a person's vulnerability for their own gain (such as money, status, or control).

It is important to recognise that individuals experiencing exploitation may not always identify it as abuse, and they are never to blame.

Contexts where sexual exploitation may occur:

Sexual exploitation can happen in a range of environments, including:

• Situations where a person is pressured or controlled into exchanging sex (e.g. for money, accommodation, protection, or basic needs)
• Brothels or massage/sauna premises where individuals may be controlled or coerced
• Escort services where there may be pressure, control, or trafficking involved
• Adult entertainment settings (e.g. lap dancing or stripping) where individuals are not acting freely or safely
• Forced or arranged marriages where a person has not given full and free consent
• Online spaces, including:
  • Webcam activity where someone is pressured or manipulated
  • Internet chat rooms or social media where grooming may take place
  • Phone-based sexual services where individuals may be exploited or controlled
• The creation or sharing of sexual images or videos without genuine consent, including pornography
• Situations involving international marriage arrangements where individuals may be deceived or exploited
• Sex tourism, where people travel to exploit others sexually, often taking advantage of vulnerability or inequality

Source: Stop The Traffik, 'Types of Exploitation'.

Institutional Abuse (also known as 'Organisational abuse') includes neglect and poor care practice within a specific care setting. This could be a hospital or a care home, but also the care you receive in your own home.

Examples of Organisational Abuse

Organisational abuse doesn't have to involve physical violence. It can be something as small as insisting that a person in care must drink their tea at the same time every day.

The abuse can either be a one-off incident or an ongoing culture of ill-treatment. The abuse can take many forms, including neglect, and poor professional practices as a result of the structure, policies, processes and practices in an organisation.

Here are some forms the abuse might take:

• Inappropriate use of power or control.
• Inappropriate confinement, restraint, or restriction.
• Lack of choice – in food, in decoration, in lighting and heating, and in other environmental aspects.
• Lack of personal clothing or possessions.
• No flexibility of schedule, particularly with bed times.
• Financial abuse.
• Physical or verbal abuse.

Source: Ann Craft Trust, 'What is Institutional Abuse? Definitions, Signs & Symptoms'

What is honour-based violence (HBV) and forced marriage?

Honour-based abuse is 'an incident or crime involving violence, threats of violence, intimidation coercion or abuse (including psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse) which has or may have been committed to protect or defend the honour of an individual, family and/ or community for alleged or perceived breaches of the family and/or community's code of behaviour'. Domestic abuse is a form of honour-based violence (HBV), but the key difference is the number of people involved and the level of involvement of wider family and community. HBV is related to the overall control a family has over a woman's behaviour. In a case of HBV, there may be a large number of potential perpetrators, and an even higher number of persons willing to plan or be involved in violent acts.

Forced Marriage Protection Order

A Forced Marriage Protection Order (FMPO) is a type of injunction (court order) which can stop the person(s) forcing you to marry from doing certain things such as making marriage arrangements or using threatening behaviour.

It also ensures the person named in the order does certain things, for example, handover passports to the court or ensure a young person attends school.

You can apply for a FMPO if:

• you or someone else is being threatened with a forced marriage
• you are in a forced marriage.

The marriage does not have to have taken place for you to gain protection.

An order can be made against one or more people living in the UK or abroad, who is, or has been, involved in making any form of forced marriage arrangements or manipulating the victim through abuse or harassment.

This could be a close family member such as mother, uncle, cousin or someone who is previously unknown, such as a person in the wider community or a religious leader.

Source: Gov.wales: 'Honour-based violence and forced marriage'.