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What is Family Violence?
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NIFVS definition of Family Violence
Family violence is the use of violent, threatening, coercive or controlling behaviour by an individual against a family member(s), or someone with whom they have, or have had, an intimate relationship.
Violent behaviour includes not only physical assaults but an array of power and control tactics used along a continuum, in concert with one another, including direct or indirect threats, sexual assault, emotional and psychological torment, economic control, property damage, social isolation and behaviour which cause a person to live in fear.
A person's experience of and responses to family violence will be influenced by their position in relation to power. This is affected by a number of factors including, but not limited to, socio-economic status, cultural background, sexuality, indigenous status, ability, age and experience of migration.
Notes to definition
We recognise that women and children experience the majority of the burden of family violence and that it is overwhelmingly males known to these women and children who abuse them in private.
Family members, consistent with The Family Violence Protection Act 2008, can refer to:
Across all groups of women, it is important to note that women’s own, accurate and lived definitions of family violence are often clouded by men’s descriptions, excuses and acts of minimisation.
Psychological or emotional abuse can be just as harmful as physical abuse. Abuse in a relationship is never acceptable, regardless of the circumstances, and is never the fault of the victim. Abuse is not caused by alcohol, or stress, or by the victim's behaviour. Abuse happens because the abuser wants to control and manipulate the other person.
This definition is based on that used in the DHS Practice Guidelines: Women and Children’s Family Violence Counselling and Support Program.
This definition was created in September 2009, endorsed by the Northern Family Violence Strategic Network in December 2009 and will be revisited in 2010.
Victorian Legal Definition of Family Violence
Victoria’s Family Violence Protection Act (2008) gives the following definition of family violence:
Family violence is harmful behaviour that occurs when someone threatens or controls a family member through fear.
It can include physical harm, sexual assault, emotional and economic abuse and may also involve:
Unreasonably controlling a person by withholding money for reasonable living expenses where a person is dependent on them for financial support
Threatening to harm another family member or pet in order to intimidate
Racist taunts that inflict emotional harm
Preventing contact with other family members or friends in order to torment the person
Committing any of the above acts is illegal and can be pursued through the justice system.
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