"Everyone has the right to be treated with respect and the responsibility to respect others”
(www.bullying.org)
What is family violence?
“Family violence is the abuse of power within relationships of family, trust or dependency that endangers the survival, security or well-being of another person. Family violence can include spouse abuse (married or common-law), older adult abuse and neglect, child abuse and neglect, child sexual abuse, parent abuse, and exposure to abuse of others in the family.” (Alberta Children and Youth Services)
What does family violence looks like?
Family violence usually involves a pattern of abusive behaviour. Family violence may include some or all of the following behaviours:
Neglect - a child is neglected if the guardian is unable or unwilling to:
a. provide the child with the necessities of life,
b. obtain from the child, or to permit the child to receive, essential medical, surgical or other remedial treatment that is necessary for the health or well-being of the child.
c. provide the child with adequate care or supervision.
Physical abuse – is the intentional use of physical force with the potential for causing injury, harm, disability, or death. For example, hitting, pushing, punching, throwing objects, threatening, and intimidating behaviour.
Psychological and emotional abuse – rejecting, degrading, ignoring, isolating, terrorizing, and corrupting.
Examples of this are:
- being blamed for everything (the black sheep of the family)
- holding children responsible for adult problems (e.g a parent confiding to their child about his/her marriage problems, using children to relay messages between parents, expecting older children to take on the parenting role of their younger siblings in ways that interfere with their development as a child)
- depriving children of affection or showing conditional affection (show affection only if the children achieve certain conditions)
- inappropriate/demeaning criticism, and humiliation.
Verbal abuse – name calling, repeated shouting, and repeated screaming.
Sexual abuse – being exposed inappropriately or subjected to sexual contact, activity or behaviour, including prostitution-related activities.
Financial abuse –The illegal or improper use of the person's property, finances and other assets without their informed consent or where consent is obtained by fraud. (e.g stealing from other family member, using other family member’s credit card without permission)
Spiritual abuse - maltreatment of a person in the name of God, faith, religion, or church, whether habitual or not, includes any of the following:
- Any act by deeds or words that demean, humiliate or shame the natural worth and dignity of a person as a human being
- Submission to spiritual authority without any right to disagree; intimidation
- Unreasonable control of a person's basic right to make a choice on spiritual matters
- False accusation and repeated criticism by negatively labeling a person as disobedient, rebellious, lacking faith, demonized, apostate, enemy of the church or God
- Prevention from practicing faith
- Isolation or separation from family and friends due to religious affiliation
- Exclusivity; dismissal of an outsider's criticism and labeling an outsider as of the devil
- Conformity to a dangerous or unnatural religious view and practice
- Hostility that includes shunning (relational aggression, parental alienation) and persecution
(wikipedia.org)
