Abuse Continuum


monarch-place-page-images-abuse-continuum

Abuse often becomes more severe and/or more frequent over time.
The Continuums of Abuse illustrate how physical, sexual, financial, and emotional abuse can progress in their harm and danger.

 

Physical Abuse Continuum

  • Not meeting physical needs
  • Pinching/squeezing
  • Tickling
  • Pushing/shoving/restraining
  • Jerking/pulling/shaking
  • Slapping/biting/pulling hair
  • Shaking
  • Hitting/punching/kicking
  • Choking/throwing objects
  • Repeated hitting or repeated action of any previous item
  • Targeted hitting (hitting certain areas of the body) or targeting of any previous item
  • Using objects as weapons ( household weapons)
  • Restraining/hitting/punching
  • Throwing her
  • Pregnancy–miscarriage
  • Medical treatment needed
  • Lacerations that require stitches
  • Broken bones/internal injuries
  • Disabling or disfiguring
  • Using weapons/knives, guns, poison
  • Death

 Sexual Abuse Continuum

  • Joking in her presence
  • Treating her as a sex object (ogling)
  • Sexual jokes about women
  • Jealousy (may be extreme)
  • Ignoring her changing psychological needs
  • Minimizing her feeling/needs regarding sex
  • Criticizing her sexually
  • Child/partner attending strip shows
  • Uncomfortable touch
  • Unwanted touch
  • Withholding sex/affection
  • Sexualizing need for affection
  • Sexualizing a kiss by other than partner
  • Sex labels: “whore”. “frigid”, “dried-up”
  • Demanding sex
  • Using pornography
  • Taking away her right to say “NO”
  • Forcing her to strip or perform humiliating acts in front of kids, others
  • Forcing picture-taking
  • Promiscuity
  • Forcing her to watch sexual acts, pornography, etc.
  • Demanding sex with threats
  • Forcing sex with self/others
  • Forcing uncomfortable sex
  • Forcing sex after beating
  • Sex for purpose of hurting (use of objects/weapons)
  • Unwanted sadism
  • Mutilation
  • Death

Financial Abuse Continuum

  • Believing that older people do not need money
  • Believing that only men can manage the finances
  • Thinking of her money as his own
  • Criticizing choice of spending
  • Unwilling to teach her money-handling skills
  • Doling out her own money
  • Consuming her resources (e.g. food/alcohol) without payment
  • Withholding money
  • Imposing unwanted caregiver roles
  • Moving in with the older person/not moving out
  • Forcing or making person feel guilty so as to entwine resources
  • Withholding financial status
  • Taking advantage of her mental condition
  • Denying services for monetary convenience, e.g., birth control, medical care
  • Not paying loans/repeated borrowing
  • Unwanted/forced pre-distribution of goods
  • “Borrowing” of possessions
  • Taking money
  • Making her give her money to children
  • Duress/misrepresentation
  • Forcing her to give over control of money
  • Theft of money/goods
  • Make her sign over house/car
  • Stealing her cheques, e.g., baby bonus, pension
  • Denying her money for necessities
  • Leaving her destitute
  • Death/suicide

 Emotional Abuse Continuum

  • Jokes about habits/faults/age/disabilities
  • Insults
  • Overly familiar, e.g., use of “dear”/not using name that woman prefers
  • Speaking to third party (acting as if she were not there)
  • Treating her as a child
  • Not looking at her if she has a disability, or treating her as if she had a disability
  • Withholding approval
  • Ignoring her feelings
  • Taking away choices regarding dress, food and other personal
  • Not communicating appropriately
  • Not keeping promises
  • Yelling
  • Name calling
  • Repeated/targeted insults
  • Repeated private humiliation
  • Blaming victim for all faults
  • Lying
  • Labelling her as “crazy”, “old”, “bitch”
  • Silence/shunning
  • Threatening violence/retaliation
  • Putting down/diminishing abilities, e.g., as a parent, grandparent
  • Demanding attention
  • Telling her about affairs
  • Labelling her as alcoholic when under medication
  • Alienating children/causing their alienation
  • Imposing expectations beyond her, (i.e., looking after grandchildren)
  • Offering to stay “since you need me and can’t make it without me”
  • Adult Children moving home/living off woman
  • Unpredictable actions
  • Repeated public humiliations
  • Threatening to put her in a home/competency
  • Nervous Breakdown/depression
  • Mental “illness”
  • Declaring her incompetent
  • Threatening/attempting
  • Attempting suicide
  • Death