Understanding Abuse
Abuse is a pattern of controlling behaviour. In families, an abusive person can use many tactics to gain power over another family member. Examples include:
- damaging personal property
- name-calling, put-downs and other forms of verbal and emotional abuse
- hitting, punching, kicking and other forms of physical abuse
- sexual abuse
- neglect
- forced confinement
- stalking
- ridiculing a person's religious beliefs
- spending a person's paycheque or limiting their access to finances
- shaking a baby
- threatening to harm or harming people or animals.
Family violence can happen to:
- children and youth
- dating and common-law partners
- spouses - women and men
- people in same-sex and LGBTQ* relationships
- older adults
- people with disabilities
- Aboriginals
- immigrants
- members of faith communities
- neighbours
- coworkers
- clients and patients
- animals.
Everyone deserves to be in healthy relationships.
In some cases, abused people may not realize the behaviour they are living with is abuse. For others, getting help may be too scary or embarrassing. You can help. Warning signs can help you determine if a person you know is experiencing family violence. Although warning signs alone do not prove abuse, they can indicate a need for help. How to help will depend on the situation.
Click here to learn more about recognizing the warning signs of abuse.
*LGBTQ: A commonly used acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, trans-identified, two-spirited and queer identities.
