But They Were Never Physical…
A question that I get asked regularly is “What is Family Violence?” And, there seems to be some misconception that because someone isn’t physical, then it must not be “violence”. Over the next few blog posts, I’m going to shed some light on exactly what Family Violence is – from the obvious aspects to the violence that often goes unseen.
We see it more commonly in the media now, it is (slightly) more spoken about, to the extent that we usually see or know some facts about Family Violence that can shock us. Such as:
1 in 4 women and 1 in 20 men experience Family Violence
Boys who witness Family Violence are twice as likely to use violence towards a future partner and child
70% of women who are murdered are victims of Family Violence
Aboriginal women are 35 times more likely to be hospitalised for Family Violence injuries
On average, 1 woman per week is killed by an intimate partner
And while we know some of these terrifying statistics, there is still not a great amount of knowledge around the extent of Family Violence and the behaviours that it encompasses.
In a nutshell, Family Violence is a behaviour that coerces, controls or causes another to be afraid, and often, a pattern of behaviours that causes fear can be identified. Family violence is often gendered whereby the male is the person who uses violence and the female is the person who experiences violence – however violence does not discriminate between genders, identity or sexual orientation, and can be evident in any relationship. It can occur between current or ex-partners, siblings, child/parent relationships, non-family relationships (such as carer abuse) and elder abuse.
Family Violence includes; physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, psychological, religious, spiritual and financial violence, as well as exposing a child to Family Violence.
Was any of this new information to you?
If it was, don’t worry. Over the next few blog posts, we will look more closely into each aspect of Family Violence. We will start to create more knowledge and awareness of this space so that we can look out for and teach those around us. Let’s bring this entirely into the light so that we can confidently call out Family Violent behaviours and (hopefully) start bringing down those statistics.
~ Lauren
