Domestic violence is about one person getting and keeping power
and control over another person in an intimate relationship. The
abusive person might be your current or former spouse, live-in lover or dating
partner. A psychologist and law school professor who is an expert in
domestic violence has described it as "a pattern of behavior in which on
intimate partner uses physical violence, coercion, threats, intimidation,
isolation and emotional, sexual or economic abuse to control and change the
behavior of the other partner."
Domestic violence happens to people of
all ages, races, ethnicities, and religions. It occurs in both
opposite-sex and same-sex relationships. Economic or professional
status does not indicate domestic violence - abusers and victims can be laborers
or college professors, judges or janitors, doctors or orderlies, schoolteachers,
truck drivers, homemakers or store clerks. Domestic violence occurs
in the poorest ghettos, the fanciest mansions and white-picket-fence
neighborhoods.