Domestic and family violence occurs when one person in a relationship uses violent and abusive tactics to maintain power and control over the other person in the relationship.
Domestic violence is the patterned and repeated use of coercive and controlling behaviour to limit, direct, and shape partners thoughts, feelings and actions. An array of power and control tactics is used along a continuum in concert with one another. (Almeida, R.V. and Durkin, T. 1999, ‘The Cultural Context Model: Therapy For Couples With Domestic Violence’, Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 25, 313-324).
Domestic and Family Violence is different to an argument or conflict where violence is utilised, because it involves a situation where one person uses control and violence to 'win' at the expense of the other person, who experiences fear and restriction in their sense of safety, freedom and right to disagree.
Domestic and family violence occurs between people in various domestic relationships, and happens regardless of nationality, cultural background, beliefs and social or economic status.
Domestic and family violence includes a range of abusive behaviours including physical, sexual, verbal , emotional, spiritual and financial abuse, as well as damage to property and harm to pets.
The World Health Organisation's (WHO) Report on Violence and Health (2002) highlighted violence, including partner abuse, as a serious global public health problem causing grave health damage to individual people, communities and countries. It found that women are the overwhelming majority of partner abuse victims. (Australian Domestic & Family Violence Clearing House, Issue Paper 8, 2003)
Indigenous Communities often prefer the term “family violence" due to the expanded understanding of relationships it presents, in contrast to the traditional understanding of domestic violence being between people who are spouses.
A definition was offered in the ATSIC report 1992 Tjunparni: Family Violence in Indigenous Australia.
"The beating of a wife or other family members, homicide, suicide and other self inflicted injury, rape, child abuse, and child sexual abuse, incest and the sale of younger family members for misuse by others as a way of obtaining funds for drinking or gambling. When we talk of family violence, we need to remember that we are not talking about serious physical injury alone but also verbal harassment, psychological and emotional abuse and economic deprivation". (Mow 1992, p10)
