Domestic violence occurs across all cultures, ages, ethnic groups and social classes.
As well as covering physical violence including all forms of aggressive or unwanted physical contact and sexual violence domestic violence includes non-physical abuse such as verbal, social, racist, psychological or emotional abuse, threats, neglect, harassment and the use of economic, structural, institutional or even spiritual abuse. DVIP takes them all seriously. In a patriarchal society like ours, institutional and societal power structures support some groups use of abuse and violence against others for example, men s violence towards women and parents abuse of children. It is because of this institutional support for male dominance that the vast majority of domestic violence is inflicted by men on women. Violence within same-sex relationships or violence inflicted by women on men is neither the same as men s violence towards women nor symmetrically opposite to it.