Each year, about 1.3 million women and 835,000 men become the victims of domestic abuse in the United States. Since about 60% of these incidents happen in the home, more than 3 million children witness domestic violence.
Types of Domestic Violence
The thing is that not all of these are physical altercations. Domestic violence lawyers see cases every day that involve no actual physical harm, but are still instances of domestic violence. How is that possible, you may wonder? It’s because there are many more things that constitute domestic violence than you may realize. Here are just a few of the other forms that domestic violence lawyers commonly see.
Emotional.
Domestic violence lawyers often encounter cases that involve emotional abuse, which is when the abuser inflicts psychological or mental violence. Name calling, insults, blaming, jealousy, unfounded accusations of cheating, intimidation, shaming, humiliation, social isolation, following, and stalking are all common forms of emotional abuse.
Sexual.
In many of the physically violent cases domestic violence lawyers see, sexual violence is often involved. This is when an abuser forces a victim to have some form of sexual intercourse with them, or take part in some form of sexual activity. Such acts as forcing a partner to perform sexual acts against their will (including having sex with other people), pursuing sexual activity with the victim while they’re not fully conscious (or are afraid to say no), coercing a partner to have sex without protection against pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases are all instances of sexual domestic violence.
Financial.
Domestic violence lawyers even encounter forms of financial violence, which involve an abuser causing his or her partner to lose their job. This may be done by preventing the victim from being able to go to work, showing up and harassing the victim at work, causing the victim to be late to work, withholding transportation to work, ruining their work clothing or uniform, putting the victim on an allowance, or damaging a partner’s credit score.
Many of the criminal defense cases that domestic violence lawyers see actually involve no physical violence, but may involve other, less tangible forms of abuse.
If you’re still wondering what is considered domestic violence or would like to know more about our criminal defense attorney, feel free to share in the comments.