What is domestic violence? Domestic violence is aggression or violence that happens in the home when a grown up attacks or threatens another adult in the family. In most cases, the violence is carried out by a man against a woman, but not always.

Domestic violence can happen in any family and in all kinds of homes. In half of the cases of violence between adults the children get hurt too. Even if the children do not see the violence happening they often hear it. Children are often in the same or next room when the violence is going on. This can be extremely upsetting for them.

Domestic violence can happen in lots of different ways. These include -

Physical abuse
hurting someone by pushing, hitting or kicking

Sexual abuse
forcing or encouraging someone to take part in sexual behaviour in any way that makes them feel uncomfortable

Emotional abuse
saying things on purpose to frighten the other person or putting them down to make them feel bad. For example, constantly saying that someone is stupid or ugly

Controlling behaviour
preventing someone by force from acting freely. This can include stopping them from seeing their friends or relatives, not letting them have a job or spend money.

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