Domestic Abuse

Domestic abuse is an incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening, degrading or violent behaviour, including sexual violence, perpetrated by somebody who is personally connected to you, such as a friend, partner or relative.

Domestic abuse can happen to anybody; 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime and 1 in 5 children have lived with an adult perpetrating domestic abuse.

Domestic abuse is not just physical, there are many ways in which a person can be abused including:

  • Physical abuse – pushing and shoving or restraining you, as well as punching, kicking and strangulation
  • Economic abuse – controlling your access to money, ability to earn money or your ability to have any level of independence
  • Emotional abuse – blaming you for any disagreements or violence (gas-lighting), threatening or manipulating behaviour
  • Sexual abuse – manipulating you or forcing you to do anything sexually you don’t feel comfortable doing
  • Coercive control – belittling or humiliating behaviour, undermining your self-esteem, monitoring your movements or controlling your freedom or ability to make decisions
  • Honour based abuse – abuse which has been or is being perpetrated to protect or defend the honour of a family and/or community. This can include forced marriage and female genital mutilation
  • Stalking and harassment – a repeated pattern of behaviour that causes a person to feel frightened, nervous or in danger. This can include unwanted contact by phone, social media or email, or unwanted visits to your home address or workplace

If you or someone you know is being abused, there are free and confidential services that can help. Please scroll down to see the services available in your area.

Very Brief Intervention

Ask

If you are worried that somebody may be a victim of domestic abuse, you can complete a DASH (domestic abuse stalking and harassment) risk assessment. The questions on the DASH will help you to assess the level of risk to the individual ahead of making the appropriate referrals. You can download a DASH form and guidance here.

Assist

If somebody discloses domestic abuse to you, you should reassure them that this is not their fault and that nothing they do justifies the abuse. Reassure the individual that there are support services available to both victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse and their children.

Act

You should inform the individual who is experiencing domestic abuse that they should call 999 if they are in danger. If they’re unable to speak when they dial 999, they can use 'The Silent Solution': Wait for the operator to speak and type 55 on the keypad. This will alert the operator that they need help.

There are local and national support services who can help both victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse and their children. Please click your location from the drop downs below to see contact details for support services available in your locality.

If you have completed a DASH risk assessment and it has scored 14 or above, this is deemed high risk and requires a MARAC (multi-agency risk assessment conference) referral as well as a referral to your local domestic abuse support service. The MARAC referral process may vary depending on your local authority, please click your local area below for more information.

If there are children linked to the domestically abusive relationship you should make the appropriate safeguarding referrals for your locality.

Local Support and Contact Details