Partner violence is a pattern of abusive behavior that is used by an intimate partner to gain or maintain power and control over the other intimate partner. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.
Partner violence can be:
- Physical: Hitting, slapping, shoving, grabbing, pinching, biting, hair pulling, etc are types of physical abuse. This type of abuse also includes denying a partner medical care or forcing alcohol and/or drug use upon him or her.
- Sexual: Coercing or attempting to coerce any sexual contact or behavior without consent. Sexual abuse includes, but is certainly not limited to, marital rape, attacks on sexual parts of the body, forcing sex after physical violence has occurred, or treating one in a sexually demeaning manner.
- Emotional: Undermining an individual's sense of self-worth and/or self-esteem is abusive. This may include, but is not limited to constant criticism, diminishing one's abilities, name-calling, or damaging one's relationship with his or her children.
- Economic: Is defined as making or attempting to make an individual financially dependent by maintaining total control over financial resources, withholding one's access to money, or forbidding one's attendance at school or employment.
- Psychological: Elements of psychological abuse include - but are not limited to - causing fear by intimidation; threatening physical harm to self, partner, children, or partner's family or friends; destruction of pets and property; and forcing isolation from family, friends, or school and/or work.
Partner violence can happen to anyone regardless of race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender. Partner violence affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels. Partner violence occurs in both opposite-sex and same-sex relationships and can happen to intimate partners who are married, living together, or dating.
Partner violence not only affects those who are abused, but also has a substantial effect on family members, friends, co-workers, other witnesses, and the community at large. Children, who grow up witnessing partner violence, are among those seriously affected by this crime. Frequent exposure to violence in the home not only predisposes children to numerous social and physical problems, but also teaches them that violence is a normal way of life - therefore, increasing their risk of becoming society's next generation of victims and abusers.
Sexual assault is any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs by force or without consent of the recipient of the unwanted sexual activity.
Sexual assault includes:
- Forced sexual intercourse
- Forcible sodomy
- Child molestation
- Incest
- Fondling
- Attempted rape
- Sexual acts against people who are unable to consent either due to age or lack of capacity
Sexual assault among college students:
- 19% of women report being a victim of attempted or completed sexual assault since entering college.
- 6.1% of males report experiencing attempted or completed sexual assault since entering college
- The large majority of victims of sexual assault are victimized by men they know and trust, rather than strangers.
- Women who are victimized during their college career are most likely to be victimized early during their college tenure
- Prior victimization is associated with being a victim while in college.
- 33% of victims report drinking at the time of the incident.
- 63% of victims report the sexual assault occurred off-campus, most commonly in the victim’s or some other person’s living quarters.
- Fall is the most prevalent season for sexual assault.
Source: The Campus Sexual Assault (CSA) Study (2007)
Stalking is a pattern of repeated and unwanted attention, harassment, contact, or any other course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.
Stalking can include:
- Repeated, unwanted, intrusive, and frightening communications from the perpetrator by phone, mail, and/or email.
- Repeatedly leaving or sending victim unwanted items, presents, or flowers.
- Following or laying in wait for the victim at places such as home, school, work, or recreation place.
- Making direct or indirect threats to harm the victim, the victim's children, relatives, friends, or pets.
- Damaging or threatening to damage the victim's property.
- Harassing victim through the internet.
- Posting information or spreading rumors about the victim on the internet, in a public place, or by word of mouth.
- Obtaining personal information about the victim by accessing public records, using internet search services, hiring private investigators, going through the victim's garbage, following the victim, contacting victim's friends, family work, or neighbors, etc.
Source: Stalking Resource Center, National Center for Victims of Crime
Incapacitated sexual assault is any unwanted sexual contact occurring when a victim is unable to provide consent or stop what is happening because she is passed out, drugged, drunk, incapacitated, or asleep, regardless of whether the perpetrator was responsible for her substance use or whether substances were administered without her knowledge.
- Alcohol is the most commonly reported substance.
- 29% of perpetrators who commit completed incapacitated sexual assault report being on a date with the victim at the time of the incident.
- 86.2% of perpetrators report that the victim was drinking before the incident, and 81.0% of perpetrators report drinking before the incident.
- 0% of the perpetrators of incapacitated sexual assault, whether penetration of the victim occurred or not, consider the incident to be rape.
- 90.2% of male victims report they were victims of incapacitated sexual assault.
- Incapacitated sexual assaults are more likely to be perpetrated by a friend or acquaintance of the victim.
- 25% of incapacitated sexual assault victims are victimized by a member of a fraternity.
- Victims of incapacitated sexual assault are considerably more likely to have been using alcohol before and be drunk during the assault.
Source: The Campus Sexual Assault (CSA) Study (2007)
