ABSTRACT

Psychological abuse which can include financial abuse, technology-enabled abuse, threats and harassment is often perpetrated alongside physical and sexual forms of violence. This chapter argues that the emphasis on physical assault in law and policy has resulted in these forms of coercion and control remaining hidden and that when women consequently adapt their behaviour to prevent further physically violent outbursts, this is often misrecognized as individual weakness or personality factors. In Gill's study of South Asian women's experiences of partner violence, she found that psychological abuse typically included verbal attacks that were intended to 'undermine their self-esteem and to exercise control over their presentation of self'. Some of the women in Gill's study reported that psychological abuse took place solely within the home, while others reported that public humiliation was an important tactic as an ultimate display of confidence and power by an abuser.