SPECIAL REPORT: Domestic violence not just physical or sexual

DOMESTIC violence takes many forms and doesn’t have to be domestic or violent in the strictest sense.

Academics prefer to use the term “intimate partner violence” so as not to exclude dating relationships where victim and abuser do not share a home. Also, there is debate among support services as to whether the term “violence” should be replaced with “abuse”.

However, there is no desire to get hung up on language, so the services stress that domestic violence can mean any persistent behaviour that puts a woman in fear — for her life, health, or sanity.