For more statistical information on domestic abuse go to:
Within a relationship, disagreements and arguments do occur – this is normal. It is not normal for one partner to feel threatened, too frightened to argue back, or unsafe to disagree or express their opinion.
The Police call it family violence, the Family Court calls it domestic abuse. Sometimes it is called men’s violence against women or wife bashing. Most violence in private is intimate partner violence. Whatever you call it, the reality is that it is extremely common in New Zealand. No one deserves to be abused. It is never okay.
Below is the Power and Control Wheel. It shows the most common forms of abuse are used to control intimate partners. The wheel was put together in the 1980s by women and children in Duluth, Minnesota, USA. Domestic abuse workers asked them to describe the most common ways they were being abused. The wheel is now used all around the world to help abused people understand what is happening to them, and to help people understand domestic abuse.
The Power and Control Wheel shows that physical violence is rarely used alone; it is often used together with sexual violence and emotional, psychological and financial abuse.
The Equality Wheel following shows what a healthy relationship looks like.
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