What is Domestic Violence - Okaloosa Walton Domestic Violence Coordinating Council (OWDVCC)

Domestic violence is a pattern of coercive control founded on and supported by violence, sexual violence, emotional abuse, and/or psychological abuse. – (Marvin, 1997)

Forms of Abuse
Physical Violence: includes punching, strangulation, biting, hitting, hair-pulling, stabbing, shooting, or threats of this type of violence.

Sexual Violence: characterized by physical attacks of the breast and/or genital area, unwanted touching, rape with objects, and forced sexual relations, including marital rape.

Emotional Abuse: takes the form of systematic degrading of the victim’s self-worth. Includes calling the victim names, making derogatory or demeaning comments, forcing the victim to perform degrading or humiliating acts, threatening to kill the victim or the victim’s family, controlling access to money, and acting in other ways that imply that the victim is crazy.

Psychological Abuse: involves all of the features of emotional abuse but also consists of at least one violent episode or attack on the victim to maintain the impending threat of additional assaults. Destruction of property includes destroying personal belongings, family heirlooms, or even the family pet. This destruction is purposeful and the psychological impact on the victim may be as devastating as a physical attack.

	Okaloosa-Walton Domestic Violence Coordinating Council P.O. Box 220 \| FWB, FL 32549 info@owdvcc.org