About 24 people per minute are victims of rape, violence and stalking by an intimate partner in the U.S. Domestic violence can take many forms and happens across all racial, economic and cultural lines. But it can be hard to recognize and understand, especially when mental health professionals don’t have the right tools or training.
In this article, we explore what qualifies as domestic abuse and shine a spotlight on new, hopeful approaches to treatment that can help people break the cycle of violence. We also look at the many ways that intimate partner violence impacts our society, from its economic effects to its societal consequences for generations to come.
Does your partner yell or use physical force? Does your partner threaten you or others? Do they isolate you from friends and family or refuse to let you have phone calls? Do they try to control your money or other resources? Do they threaten to hurt or kill themselves or your children? Do they see you as property or a sex object?
Abuse can be a pattern of coercive and controlling behavior that involves threats, emotional or psychological abuse, or the threat of violence. It is most often perpetrated by men against women, and can occur in same-sex relationships and within the LGBTQ community. Survivors of childhood abuse often develop behavioral challenges like dissociation or numbing, which can lead to difficulties in regulating emotions and reading social cues, which makes them more vulnerable to abusive behavior. And while outside factors (like drug and alcohol abuse) can exacerbate abuse, they are not the root cause of it.