Sexual Violence

Creative Interventions Toolkit. Chapter 2, Basic I:

Interpersonal violence usually takes place between people who know each other – sometimes making violence more complicated and confusing.

Interpersonal violence is violence that occurs between:
• People in an intimate relationship (dating, marriage, live-in, domestic partner, former partner, parents of the same child, etc.) –  domestic violence or intimate partner violence
• People in a family or family-like social network – family violence
• Friends
• Household Members
• Neighbors
• Co-Workers
• Members of the same organization (e.g., church, community organization, etc.)
• Acquaintances

Because these relationships of violence may also include relationships of love, companionship, friendship, loyalty and also dependence, and even survival, this can make it more confusing to understand the dynamics of violence and also to change them.

Chapter 2, Basic II:

Interpersonal violence can look many different ways and take many different forms.

We look at interpersonal violence as any form of abuse, harm, violence, or violation
taking place between two or more individuals. It can include forms of violence used to harm someone, keep someone under one’s control, to get someone to do whatever one wants them to do. Examples include the following:

• Physical Violence or Threats – Includes using intimidating body language; pushing; slapping; hitting; beating; kicking; strangling; pulling hair; holding down; locking into a room or space; driving dangerously; keeping someone up at night – not letting them sleep; leaving someone in a dangerous location; or using a weapon.

• Verbal and Emotional Violence – Includes yelling; name-calling; put-downs; humiliating behavior; always being right; or making someone feel crazy.

• Isolation – Including making it difficult for someone to make friends; keep up relationships; see one’s family; remain connected to one’s community; go to work; go to school; go outside the home; talk to other people; look at other people; make phone calls.

• Sexual Violence – Includes making someone participate in sexual activities of any kind against their will; making someone do sexual acts that they do not want to do; making someone watch pornography or see pornographic images against their will; or making sexual remarks, looks, or gestures against their will; sending unwanted sexual text messages (sexting), calls or emails; threatening to or publicly revealing sexually revealing photographs of the abused person. With regard to children, sexual violence includes any form of sexual activity with a child, any exposure to sexual content, any sexual remarks or looks.

• Economic or Financial Abuse – Includes withholding financial information from an intimate partner; controlling income against one’s partner or other family member; gambling or abusive use of credit cards; leaving too little money for financial survival; coming around during the time that someone’s work check or, government check comes in and taking control of that money.

• Controlling Property and Pets – Includes destroying property, especially property that is emotionally or financially valuable to that person; controlling someone’s important documents and papers such as identification; passport; immigration papers; controlling car keys and other means to get to transportation; threatening or harming pets.

• Stalking – Includes sending text-messages, emails or calling repeatedly; following someone at their home, workplace, school, or other places where they might be; monitoring someone’s emails or text messages; taking someone’s identity and getting into their bank accounts, email accounts or other private spaces; or leaving notes and messages repeatedly or in a harassing manner.

• Using someone’s vulnerability (due to prejudice/discrimination/oppression) against them – Includes using vulnerability and forms of prejudice/discrimination/oppression to justify one’s control and violence as a form of abuse (such as calling people names, using put-downs, treating someone with abuse based upon
this form of prejudice/discrimination/oppression); taking advantage of society’s prejudice/ discrimination/ oppression to control someone even more or prevent the abused person from getting help (such as threatening to call immigration authorities on someone who is an immigrant or who is undocumented) (See Figure 3: The Relationship between Prejudice/Privilege/Oppression and Interpersonal Violence).

• Using someone’s vulnerability (due to discrimination) to manipulate or control someone, or to excuse one’s own use of violence – Includes making one’s lack of power in society a justification for using power and control over others at home, in the relationship, or in the workplace; includes making it one person’s personal responsibility to “make up for” all social barriers or discrimination one faces; creating a contest over who is more oppressed than the other; using the excuse of “I’m more oppressed than you” to justify abuse and violence over the other person; using one’s disadvantage or abuse during childhood as an excuse for violence.

• Using things or people someone values against them – Includes “outing” (making public) someone who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer; making trouble at someone’s workplace; damaging someone’s reputation; harming or threatening to harm someone’s friends, family, or pets; or threatening to take someone’s children or to get custody just to harm someone.

These forms of interpersonal violence are also known by other names: domestic
violence or intimate partner violence; sexual assault or abuse; sexual harassment;
family violence; child abuse including child sexual abuse; elder abuse; violence within
friendship network or organization; and, in some cases, self-harm.

Common Forms of Interpersonal Violence