The latest data (March 2020 – March 2022) shows that show that 67.3% of the victims of domestic homicide were female. This contrasts with non-domestic homicides where the majority (87.8%) of victims over the same time period were male.
Signs and Indicators
Some facts about domestic abuse:
- It is estimated that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime.
- People subjected to domestic abuse may live with it for years before they tell anyone or seek help. – the average time taken for someone to leave an abusive relationship is 7 years.
- Domestic Abuse doesn’t just happen in intimate relationships – Familial Abuse and Child to Parent Abuse are also forms of domestic abuse.
- Domestic abuse doesn’t always end when the relationship does – post separation abuse is common.
- Every week two women are killed by a current or former partner.
- There is a much higher risk of self harm and suicide amongst victims of domestic abuse.
- Domestic abuse is not about anger, it’s not caused by alcohol or drugs, it doesn’t just happen to a particular ‘type’ of person – domestic abuse is about one person having power and control over another.
Select each of the words below to find out more about types of abuse and Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG)
Physical abuse is the most recognisable form of abuse. It can range from a slap or shove to a black eye, cut lip, or broken bone.
In the most extreme cases it can result in death.
Physical abuse doesn’t always leave visible marks or scars.
Having your hair pulled or objects thrown at you is domestic abuse too.
Many women experience domestic abuse without ever being physically abused.
Emotional abuse includes constant criticism, name calling, isolation from friends and family.
Emotional abuse can sometimes turn to physical violence over time.
See Coercive Control tile for more information.
This includes using force or threats to make you have sex or perform sexual acts with which you are uncomfortable.
It can also include taking and distributing of sexual photographs without your consent.
Key Fact: The Crime Survey for England & Wales (March 23) shows that 5.1% of people who experience domestic abuse in their lifetime are subjected to sexual abuse – although the real number is likely to be more due to under-reporting of this type of abuse.
Economic (Financial) abuse might include things like:
- Your partner taking your money or benefits
- Stopping you from working,
- Placing all the bills or debts in your name, or
- Monitoring how you spend money and other financial resources e.g. the telephone
Please watch the short film below from Surviving Economic Abuse
Coercive control is is an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim (Domestic Abuse Act, UK Home Office, 2021)
Coercive Control includes things like:
- making threats to harm (including the abuser threatening to harm themselves if the victim doesn’t comply with their demands
- threatening to harm children or pets
- isolating from friends and family
- monitoring time and how it’s spent (timing supermarket visits for example)
- Tech abuse – monitoring use of social media, using phone tracking apps, CCTV
- controlling finances – how much is spent, not allowing or sabotaging work, insisting benefits are handed over to the abuser
Coercive control is often verbal and it can be hard to evidence. This type of abuse might start off as seemingly normal – wanting to spend lots of time together, saying it’s to keep the victim safe – but over time the control increases.
Key Fact: There were over 43,000 offences of coercive control recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2023
The short video below from Scottish Women’s Aid explains some of the signs of coercive control.
Stalking and harassment is a criminal offence.
Stalking and harassment includes behaviours like:
- following – in person, on social media
- unwanted phone calls or text messages
- sending unwanted gifts
- approaching friends, family workplaces/colleagues to try to get to the victim
- Surveillance
- Property damage (including cars)
Key Fact: The police recorded 223,704 domestic abuse-related stalking and harassment offences in the year ending March 2023, accounting for a quarter of all domestic abuse-related crimes. The majority of domestic abuse-related stalking and harassment offences fell within the stalking subgroup category (43.8%), followed by the malicious communications subgroup category (35.9%;).
While there is no statutory definition for Honour Based Abuse, it is defined as
Any incident or pattern of controlling; coercive; manipulative; intimidating; or threatening behaviour, violence, or abuse perpetrated by one or more family, extended
family, and/or community members and/or current/former intimate partners in response to perceived or alleged transgressions of accepted behaviours. While most
often perpetrated against women and girls, anyone can experience honour based
abuse regardless of age, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, or gender, including men and
boys.
It can encompass but is not limited to:
Psychological, emotional, physical, sexual, spiritual and faith-related, economic, financial, and hate-aggravated abuse; forced marriage; female genital mutilation;
abduction; isolation; threats; murder; and other acts of domestic abuse.
People living in the context of an honour dynamic face additional barriers to their
ability to speak out against and report abuse for fear of repercussions including further and more severe abuse; shame; stigma; and being shunned/ostracised.
This definition was created by Karma Nirvana’s Survivor Ambassador Panel
supported by Dr Lauren Eglen, Rights Lab – University of NottinghamKey Fact: In the year ending March 2023, around 3,000 HBA-related offences were recorded by the police in England and Wales
A forced marriage is a marriage in which one or both spouses do not or cannot consent to the marriage and pressure and threats are involved for force agreement such as physical, psychological, financial, sexual and emotional pressure.
Mental Capacity to consent to marriage may need to be ascertained in some cases.
Predatory Marriage is when someone coerces, manipulates or threatens someone into marriage in order to gain financially – either property or money. Older people may be more at risk of predatory marriage.
The legal age for marriage in the UK increased to 18 on 27 February 2023.
An arranged marriage is not the same as a forced marriage.
More Info: The Forced Marriage Unit have a short film highlighting the impact that forced marriage can have on the victim and families.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is any procedure that’s designed to alter or injure a girl’s (or woman’s) genital organs for non-medical reasons.
Performing, procuring or coercing someone into FGM is illegal in the UK.
It’s sometimes known as ‘female circumcision’ or ‘female genital cutting’. It’s mostly carried out on young girls. There are no recognised physical or hygiene reasons for FGM to be carried out. FGM procedures can cause:
- severe bleeding
- infections
- problems with giving birth later in life – including the death of the baby.
The FGM Act 2003 introduced a legal mandatory duty for regulated health and social care professionals and teachers to make a report to the police if they observe signs of FGM on a child aged under or receive a disclosure from a child aged under 18.
Key Fact: NHS Digital say that since April 2015, 35,415 individual women and girls had an attendance at a Health provider where FGM was identified.
Male Victims
Men can experience domestic violence in both heterosexual and same sex relationships.
Men experiencing domestic abuse may feel ashamed about what is happening or feel like they have done something to deserve it. They might be worried that people will think they are less of a man for ‘allowing’ themselves to be abused.
Refuge places and outreach support for men experiencing domestic abuse is available, although there is less provision than for women.
Key Fact: For the year ending March 2023, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated that 751,000 men aged 16 years and over experienced domestic abuse in the last year. This is a prevalence rate of approximately 3 in 100 men
- Between March 2020 and March 2022, 87 men were killed in the context of domestic abuse. In the majority of male victim domestic homicides, the suspect was a male family member (66.1%)
- Male victims may feel ashamed and that they are ‘less of a man’ for ‘allowing’ the abuse to happen.
- Perpetrators may tell the victim that they are ‘weak’ or not a ‘real man’.
- With some same-sex victims, threat of ‘outing’ is often used as a way to control by the abuser.
- Threats of not allowing contact with children are sometimes used as a way of controlling victims.
What might a person in an abusive relationship be feeling and experiencing?
Diversity Issues
It’s important to be aware of equality and diversity issues when working with victims of domestic abuse.
Select each of the words below to read more:
Some cultures – or even family values – make it difficult for people in an abusive relationship to seek help.
A failed marriage is often seen as the woman’s fault and she is blamed for letting down the family honour.
In some cultures a woman may not be able to divorce her husband due to religious reasons.
Relationship counselling should never be used where there is domestic abuse as this can increase risk to the victim.
Where a victim has no recourse (entitlement) to public funds (ie benefits) because they are in the UK on a Spousal Visa, the abuser can use this uncertainty to inflict abuse.
The abuser may use threats to report the victim to authorities and say that they won’t be allowed to see their children and will be deported.
For information about domestic abuse support for people with No Recourse to Public Funds, please visit https://survivingeconomicabuse.org/i-need-help/getting-support/no-recourse-to-public-funds/
Some people face the challenge of English not being their first language or they need to communicate in different ways such as British Sign Language.
When working with these individuals professionals should use approved interpreters who have a DBS check.
It is not appropriate to use family members or friends of the victim or members of the extended community to which they belong.
Written information should be available in alternative languages. Also consider using professional advocates where someone needs to communicate differently (ie people with learning disabilities).
A number of reports show that women with a disability are twice as likely to experience domestic abuse as women without a disability.
Some refuges may not have appropriate facilities to accommodate women with physical or learning disabilities.
A victim may rely on the abuser to provide care and support for them which can increase their dependency on the abuser.
Abusers who are also caring for the victim may use tactics such as with-holding care or medication, or over-administering medication as ways to ‘control’ the victim.
Issues of stereotyping can cause shame, isolation and fear about speaking up.
Some refuges may not accept transgender women who have not undergone all medical transition procedures.
People with complex needs, such as problematic substance use, are sometimes excluded from some services and these issues may make it hard for them to engage with support. It’s important to remember that substances are sometimes used by victims as a way to cope with abuse or the abuser may be coercing them into using substances.
Mental Health issues can make someone more vulnerable to abuse and they may feel they will not be believed if they speak out.
Domestic Abuse can impact significantly on mental health, leading to depression, anxiety, PTSD and sometimes suicide.
LGBTQ+ victims of domestic abuse are twice as likely to attempt suicide.
Evidence suggests that LGBTQ+ victims and survivors are not accessing services at the same rate as others in the population.
LGBTQ+ people may also experience unique forms of coercive control targeted at their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Source: Safe Lives Spotlight http://safelives.org.uk/sites/default/files/resources/Free%20to%20be%20safe%20web.pdf
Victims With Mental Health Issues are more likely to:
- Seek support for the abuse from their GP.
- Experience financial difficulties as well as problems with substance misuse.
Victims of abuse with mental health problems can also become homeless due to a number of reasons.
Source – Safe Lives Spotlights http://www.safelives.org.uk/knowledge-hub/spotlights
Domestic Homicide
The Vulnerability, Knowledge and Practice Programme (VKPP) found that between 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2022 there were 470 deaths in total which took place in a domestic setting or following domestic abuse.
43% were intimate partner homicide
24% suspected victim suicide
22% adult family homicide
Of the 249 female domestic homicide victims, the suspect was male in the majority of cases (241). In the majority of female domestic homicides, the suspect was a male partner or ex-partner (74.7%), whereas in the majority of male domestic homicides, the suspect was a male family member (66.1%).
The Domestic Homicide Timeline was developed by Professor Jane Monckton-Smith – an expert in sexual and fatal violence.
The tool sets out the 8 stages of a domestic homicide timeline which Professor Monkton-Smith established after extensive research into domestic homicides:
-
A pre-relationship history of stalking or abuse by the perpetrator
-
The romance develops quickly into a serious relationship
-
The relationship becomes dominated by coercive control
-
A trigger threatens the perpetrator’s control – for example, the relationship ends or the perpetrator gets into financial difficulty
-
Escalation – an increase in the intensity or frequency of the partner’s control tactics, such as stalking or threatening suicide
-
The perpetrator has a change in thinking – choosing to move on, either through revenge or by homicide
-
Planning – the perpetrator might buy weapons or seek opportunities to get the victim alone
-
Homicide – the perpetrator kills his or her partner and possibly hurts others such as the victim’s children
Online learning on the 8 stages is available at a charge from www.homicidetimeline.co.uk
If you want to learn more about this subject, you can watch the presentation by Dr Monckton-Smith:
Signs to look out for
We’ve explored some different types of abuse. But what are the indicators that abuse is taking place?
Select each of the words below to find out more about these indicators of abuse:
- Sprains, dislocations, fractures or broken bones
- Burns from cigarettes, appliances, or hot water
- Abrasions on arms, legs, or torso that resemble rope or strap marks
- Internal injuries evidenced by pain, difficulty with normal functioning of organs, and bleeding
- Injuries healing through “secondary intention”, indicating they didn’t receive appropriate care
- Signs of traumatic hair and tooth loss
- Repeated injuries to the same parts of the body
The following types of bruises are rarely accidental:
- Bilateral bruising to the arms; look like a series of finger marks, indicating person has been shaken, grabbed or restrained
- Bilateral bruising of inner thighs, indicating possible sexual abuse
- “Wrap around” bruises that encircle a person’s arms, legs, or torso, indicating person has been physically restrained
- Multi-coloured bruises, indicating that they were sustained over time.
Strangulation or choking are often used by abusers – a new offence of Non-Fatal Strangulation came into force in 2022 and perpetrators face up to 5 years in prison. Strangulation and choking can often leave no visible injury. However, it can lead to brain damage, pneumonitis, miscarriage, heart attacks, and delayed death, days or even weeks after the assault.
- A sudden change in an individual’s financial situation; not having as much money as usual or being in debt
- Possessions, such as mobile phone or laptop, being broken or not available
- Individual not having enough food for them or their children
- If you work in the individual’s home, you should be aware of any documents that seem unusual
- Documents relating to the person’s finances go missing.
Behavioural indicators:
- Injuries sustained which are unexplained, or explanations are implausible
- Inconsistent or implausible explanations of how injuries were sustained
- A history of similar injuries, or numerous or suspicious hospitalisations
- Victims are brought to different medical facilities for treatment to prevent medical practitioners from observing a pattern of abuse
- Delay between onset of injury and seeking medical care
Behavioural signs to watch out for include:
- Changing behaviour in front of their partner
- Seeming nervous when with their partner
- Appearing less confident or frightened
- Constant phone calls or texts from their partner
- Cancelling plans at the last minute or making excuses not to meet friends or family
- Apologising for their partners’ behaviour
- Changing appearance, ie dressing more conservatively
- Using social media less (it could be being monitored by their partner).
Common Myths
Why doesn’t she just leave?
Statistically, the most dangerous time for a female victim of domestic abuse is when she leaves her abuser.
She is most likely to be murdered by him at this point.
There are also other significant issues to consider:
- Leaving could mean giving up her job, losing contact with friends and family.
- If there are children they may have to change schools and leave their friends behind.
Alcohol and drugs cause domestic violence.
Whilst there are links between people who have alcohol issues or who take drugs and domestic abuse, there is no evidence that alcohol or drugs cause domestic abuse.
Domestic abuse is about having power and control over someone, whilst taking drugs or misusing alcohol may affect people in different ways, they do not make people become an abuser.
Domestic abuse only happens to people who live in bad areas.
Anyone can be a victim of domestic abuse.
It doesn’t matter where you live, whether you have a job or not, how much money you earn, what your gender or sexual orientation is.
People of all backgrounds, cultures and religions can experience domestic abuse.
If someone experiences violence as a child, they will grow up to be an abuser.
It is acknowledged that children growing up in a violent home are affected in a number of ways and some children who experience abuse do go on to be abusive in their relationships.
But this does not apply to everyone.
Many people are repelled by violence because of what they witnessed as a child and the damage it causes.
Using violence or controlling behaviour is a choice that abusers make.
The police don’t respond to calls about a ‘domestic’.
Domestic violence is taken very seriously by the police.
Officers receive training in how to respond to calls about domestic abuse and what they should do when arriving at the scene.
Many forms of domestic abuse are a crime and the police can pursue a crime even without the consent of the victim.
S/he brings it on himself/herself.
The victim is NEVER to blame for domestic abuse.
There is NO EXCUSE for violent and abusive behaviour.
Domestic violence is a private matter, you shouldn’t interfere in a marriage.
Some people think that what goes on in the home is private, and they shouldn’t get involved.
This view is outdated and harmful.
Domestic abuse can affect anyone and we all have a responsibility to speak out.
Domestic violence is a crime – It is against the law.