Information for Women

What is Domestic Abuse?

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What is Domestic Abuse?

Domestic abuse is persistent and controlling behaviour by a partner or ex-partner which causes physical, sexual and/or emotional harm.  This often gets worse over time. Domestic abuse is overwhelmingly experienced by women and perpetrated by men however, domestic abuse can be experienced in many  different types of relationships.  It doesn’t matter how old someone is, what race, religion, or ethnicity they are, what class they are, whether they are disabled, or whether they have children – anyone can be a victim of abuse

Types of Abuse

  • Coercive Control

    Isolation, mind games, monitoring phone calls, controlling what they eat, how they dress, who they see and text, where they go, how they cook, changing the rules and control to confuse the victim.

  • Psychological and/or emotional

    Name calling, constant criticism, threats, being put down in front of others, being isolated from friends and family, emotional blackmail, guilt-tripping.

  • Financial or Economic

    Money being withheld, being forced to borrow money, getting a poor credit rating, forced to make benefit claims, having to account for money spent, not being allowed to control own finances.

  • Physical & Sexual

    Hitting, slapping, choking, punching, threats with weapons and death. Rape, sexual assault, forced to imitate pornography, forced to have unprotected sex, penetration with objects, forced to have sex with others, NCII- Non-consensual Dissemination of Intimate Images (previously referred to as ‘revenge porn’).

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Information for Women

Glasgow Women's Aid works from a feminist perspective which acknowledges that the root cause of the abuse of women and children is the imbalance of power which exists within our society and allows some people to have more power than others.

The development of our service provision over the last 40 plus years has been guided by the women, children, and young people that we have supported. They are our inspiration.