Types of Abuse
Domestic abuse can take many forms, physical, emotional or sexual abuse. The lists below detail some types of abuse someone may experience, but the list is by no means exhaustaive and everyone's experience is different. Most LGBT people will experience the same types of abuse as a heterosexual woman but there are some unique types of abuse which can be found in the 'Unique aspects of LGBT Domestic Abuse Section'
Emotional/mental abuse can take many forms. It is often the most difficult to recognise and can be the most pervasive. It can include:
- Putting their partner down e.g., telling them that they are ugly, stupid or incompetent.
- Humiliation in front of friends, family or in public.
- ‘Outing’ or threatening to out their partner to friends, family or work
- Cutting off the phone or monitoring calls or bills.
- Preventing their partner from attending LGBT (or other) events and venues.
- Locking their partner in the house.
- Threatening children.
- Harming or threatening to harm pets.
- Refusing to give their partner money, or making them account for everything they spend.
- Selling, or destroying, their possessions.
- Making it difficult for their partner to work.
- Following their partner when they go to work, home or out, or constantly watching them, their house or work.
- Calling, texting or emailing their partner or their family, friends or work colleagues more often than is appropriate, or when asked not to.
Physical abuse is any type of physical violence that an abusive person inflicts on their partner. It can include:
- Hitting, kicking, pushing, slapping, strangling, burning.
- Breaking possessions, punching/kicking walls.
Sexual abuse is any behaviour where one partner forces the other to perform sexual acts they don’t want to. It can include:
- Pressuring them to have sex when they don’t want to.
- Pressuring, forcing or tricking them into having unsafe sex.
- Making them have sex with other people.
- Sexually assaulting or raping them.
Many of these forms of abuse will often continue post separation and in a lot of cases the abuse may escalate.