What Are the Different Types of Domestic Violence?

Published by January 27, 2025 Category: Domestic Abuse

7 Types of Domestic Violence You Need to Know

Domestic violence occurs every 7.29 minutes in New Jersey. In 31% of all domestic abuse offenses in New Jersey, children are present or also victimized. It’s important to know the different types of domestic violence to protect yourself and your loved ones.

1. Physical

Physical domestic violence isn’t just slapping, punching and hitting. Causing bodily harm to another person or using physical means in an attempt to control them is physical abuse. Other examples of physical abuse are pushing, pinching, restraining, kicking, pulling hair, biting, drowning and choking.

Another form physical domestic violence can take on is withholding physical needs, such as:

  • Interrupting your sleep
  • Interrupting your meals
  • Refusing to provide money, transportation or help when you’re sick or injured
  • Rationing or refusing to give you necessities
  • Locking you inside or outside of the house

If you are seeking a same-sex divorce lawyer to help you press charges in cases of domestic violence, we can help. We are experienced in many facets of family law and we work hard on any case regardless of the client’s sex or sexuality.

2. Emotional

Emotional abuse involves behaviors that exploit your vulnerability and attack your self-worth and self-respect. The emotional wounds left behind are often debilitating for victims of emotional abuse. It can take years of therapy to recover after leaving an emotionally abusive relationship.

Signs of emotional abuse include:

  • Belittling or insulting you
  • Intimidation and threats
  • Withholding affection or information
  • Invading your privacy
  • Ultimatums
  • Breaking or taking away something that belongs to you
  • Manipulation
  • Threatening suicide
  • Gaslighting

3. Verbal

Does the person in question constantly call you names? This is verbal abuse, which often also falls under emotional abuse. Not all emotional abusers use verbal abuse, but many do. Other forms of verbal abuse include yelling, terrorizing, screaming, threatening to hurt you or people you love, and telling you that you are unattractive or undesirable.

Threatening to hurt your pets, damage your reputation, or destroy your property are also verbal abuse. Verbal abuse is cruel language that occurs on a regular basis. It’s intended, just as all other forms of domestic violence, to gain control over you through breaking down your sense of self-worth.

4. Financial

Also known as economic abuse, this type of domestic violence involves controlling or limiting your access to economic resources. The abuser may take your paychecks, strictly limit your access to family funds, prevent you from getting a job, sabotage any job you get, keep financial secrets, put you on an allowance, or spend money that was meant for necessities on nonessentials. Some financial abusers keep hidden accounts too. If you have discovered they have a hidden account and are controlling your income in some way, then this is financial abuse.

Possible ways in which the abuser may try sabotaging your job are:

  • Making you late for work
  • Denying you transportation to work
  • Harassing you while you’re at work
  • Frequently calling you while you’re at work

5. Control

Would you describe the person in question as controlling? Even if they don’t hit you, controlling behavior can be considered domestic violence. Control is considered domestic abuse if the other person restricts your access to family and friends, limits how far you can drive the car, requires that you gain their permission to go anywhere, berates or punishes you when you don’t do as you’re told, monitors your phone calls, or calls often to check on you. These are all obsessive levels of control.

The abuser may force you to dress more conservatively or more provocatively than you want. Domestic abusers may also encourage dependency by not letting you complete simple tasks on your own. You might feel as if you can’t do anything you want.

6. Isolation

Isolation can begin subtly and appear as gestures of love in the beginning. As time goes on, the controlling behaviors worsen and cause you to feel suffocated. You find yourself being socially isolated. An example of this subtlety is when they get upset when you don’t spend enough time with them. They may persuade you to spend time with them instead of your family and friends.

7. Sexual

Contrary to what a sexual abuser says, sexual abuse is possible between two people who are in a romantic relationship with each other. Aside from forcing sex on someone, sexual abuse includes using sex in an exploitative way. Some abusers may also sexually abuse your children as a way of controlling you.

Other ways sexual abuse may manifest are:

  • Making you have sex with someone else
  • Guilting you into having sex
  • Forcing you into unwanted sexual experiences
  • Having sex with you while you’re intoxicated, drugged or asleep
  • Using affairs to taunt you
  • Withholding sex from you to control you
  • Recording you without your permission

Domestic violence takes on many shapes and forms. An abuser often doesn’t fall under just one category. Because not all domestic violence is physical, it’s important for everyone to be aware of what counts as domestic abuse to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Domestic violence can occur in same-sex relationships just as in heterosexual relationships. The Law Office of Kelly Berton Rocco in Hackensack, NJ, has compassionate same-sex divorce lawyers ready to aggressively represent you whether you are a female or male victim. Call us at 201-343-0078 for a free 30-minute telephone consultation to discuss your concerns around domestic violence.