There are three forms of domestic violence – battering, resistive violence and non-battering domestic violence.
Battering
Battering is an ongoing patterned use of intimidation, coercion, and violence, as well as other tactics of control to establish and maintain a relationship of dominance over an intimate partner. Battering is a systematic way of utilizing various tactics to restrict an intimate partner’s autonomy. It is much more than a simple attack. Battering is the most common form of domestic violence and is estimated to be 90–92% of all domestic violence cases.
Several different tactics which perpetrators usually use to gain and hold power and control over their victims and to ensure their submission in a relationship have been identified:
- intimidation
- coercion and threats
- emotional abuse
- isolation
- minimizing, denying and blaming
- using children
- male privilege
- economic abuse
There is typically an element of entrapment when battering is used in an intimate relationship – victims feel like they cannot leave without being punished. Battering causes fear of continued acts of violence and, therefore, influences a victim’s ability to speak freely, for example, to law-enforcement officials, as well as to leave the abusive relationship.
Resistive violence
Resistive violence includes both legal and illegal use of force in response to their abuser’s coercive and controlling tactics or in reaction to another person’s violence. Resistive violence is usually a response to battering. It is estimated to be 5–8% of all domestic violence cases. Resistive violence is a part of a victim’s broader strategy to stop or contain the abuse. Some examples of resistive actions against the batterer include:
- negotiation
- appeals to family and friends
- appeasement
- anger and hostility
- separation
- withdrawal
- use of force
Non-battering domestic violence
Non-battering domestic violence is a form used by one intimate partner against the other and is neither an ongoing attempt to exert control, nor a response to control. It encompasses all other acts of domestic violence, which can be subdivided into categories like situational violence or violence that stems from mental health or chemical dependency issues. Non-battering domestic violence is the least common kind of domestic violence and estimated to be 1–3% of all domestic violence cases.
Recognizing the forms of domestic violence
All three forms of domestic violence occur in many violent relationships. In many cases, the victims of domestic violence use resistive violence as an instinctive response to the perpetrator’s battering for the sake of protecting their lives. Thus, it is very important for law-enforcement institutions to help providers for victims and treatment providers for perpetrators, to distinguish the forms of domestic violence and identify the primary aggressor and the victim so as to take adequate action against the perpetrator and to the provide necessary protection for the victim.
Failing to distinguish one kind of domestic violence from another can:
- endanger the victims of ongoing violence
- result in inappropriate responses by law-enforcement, prosecutors and the court, advocates and counsellors
- embolden perpetrators
example If in case of resistive violence, its perpetrator, who is in fact a victim of battering, is identified as the primary aggressor of domestic violence, it may result in the prosecution of the victim of the battering, while no action is taken against the batterer, thereby empowering this person to maintain power and control over the victim.
example If physical violence is categorized as non-battering domestic violence, due to the justification of the perpetrator’s actions due to the use of alcohol, the pattern of battering is left unrecognized, thereby endangering the victim’s safety.