ABSTRACT
Stereotypes of crime and deviance are focused on violence perpetrated by strangers in public spaces. However, women and girls face their greatest risk of victimisation from known men. The domestic home and private family life are two primary contexts for such victimisation. Domestic violence refers to violence and abuse by current or former intimate partners. It includes physical violence, sexual violence, emotional or psychological abuse and economic abuse. Domestic violence is generally understood to describe the type of ongoing abusive, controlling and violent behaviour that was originally called ‘wife beating’. While the shift to de-gendered terminology reflects the recognition that violence and abuse extends beyond heterosexual men’s violence against women, domestic violence remains a highly gendered phenomenon.
