Domestic Abuse
What is domestic violence?
Domestic violence is physical, psychological, sexual or financial violence that takes place within an intimate or family type relationship and forms a pattern of coersive and controlling behaviour.
Any woman can experience domestic violence regardless of race, ethnic or religious group, class, sexuality, disability or lifestyle. These pages contain links to regional and national sources of help - use the menu to the left to access more information. You can also download and print our summary sheet of a few more useful numbers here - Domestic Abuse: Useful Numbers (
374KB)
Domestic Violence destroys both women's and children's lives.
- 1 woman is beaten in the UK every 10 seconds
- 1 woman in 4 experiences domestic violence at some stage in her life. (1)
- 2 women are murdered every week by their current or former partners. (2)
- A woman will be assaulted on average 35 times by her partner, or ex-partner, before asking for help, and make between 5 -12 different contacts with agencies in an effort to end the violence. (3)
References: 1, 2, British Crime Survey (1998), 3 'Making an Impact' NSPCC (1998), 5 'Domestic violence: A health response' DoH (2000), 8 NCH (1994) Information from the Barnsley Pathways web site
