Family violence
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Family violence (also called domestic violence) is the use of violence, threats, force or intimidation to control or manipulate a family member, partner, former partner or other person the perpetrator has a relationship with.
Acts of family violence not only include assault and physical injury, but also sexual assault, threats (direct and indirect), controlling access to money, damaging property, social isolation, emotional and psychological torment and any behaviour which causes a person to live in fear.
A person’s age, gender, sexual identity, cultural background, ability, religion, wealth, status or even location doesn’t matter – anyone can be affected by family violence.
Family violence directly affects one in five Victorian women over the course of their lifetime. It is the leading contributor to preventable death, disability and illness in Victorian women aged 15 to 44 years.
Information in your language
Information in your language about family
- Anger - how it affects people
Well-managed anger can be a useful emotion that motivates you to make positive changes.
- Anger - tips to resolve arguments
There are many people you can talk to who can help you overcome feelings of wanting to lash out.
- Behavioural disorders in children
Untreated behavioural disorders in children may mean they grow up to be dysfunctional adults.
- Conduct disorder (CD)
Children with untreated conduct disorder (CD) are at increased risk of problems including substance use, personality disorders and mental illnesses.
- Family conflict
It is normal to disagree with each other from time to time and occasional conflict is part of family life.
- Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)
Oppositional defiant disorder is a childhood behavioural problem characterised by constant disobedience and hostility.
- Relationships - dealing with conflict
With the physical and emotional closeness of a partnership, it is inevitable that there is sometimes conflict.
- Children and families at risk due to living circumstances
Certain children are at a higher risk of physical or emotional harm than others due to their living circumstances or home environment.
- Parenting support to help prevent abuse
There is a range of non-government agencies available to help families under stress in caring for their children.
- Relationships, family and mental health
When you, your partner or someone in your family has a mental illness, it can cause stress and worry for everyone.
- Aboriginal health services
The following services provide specialised healthcare for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victoria.
- Family violence - tips for children and young people
Children and young people are not to blame for violence at home, it's not your fault and it's not a special secret
- Family violence and children
Children exposed to domestic violence are more likely to experience emotional and behavioural problems.
- Family violence explained
Perpetrators often make excuses for their violence, for example, blaming alcohol or stress.
- Family violence services
Victoria has a range of services available to help people at risk of, experiencing or escaping from family violence.
- Mental illness and violence
People with a mental illness who are receiving effective treatment are no more violent than anyone else in the community.
- What is family violence?
Family violence can be physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, economic, spiritual or legal abuse. All family violence is illegal and unacceptable.
- Aboriginal health services
The following services provide specialised healthcare for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victoria.
- Family violence services
Victoria has a range of services available to help people at risk of, experiencing or escaping from family violence.
- Parenting support to help prevent abuse
There is a range of non-government agencies available to help families under stress in caring for their children.
- What is family violence?
Family violence can be physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, economic, spiritual or legal abuse. All family violence is illegal and unacceptable.
- Who to call in a crisis
Immediate telephone assistance is available for all kinds of emergencies.
- Date rape
Date rape can be especially common among young people who have had little sexual experience and aren’t sure that what they have experienced crosses the line into rape. Many victims of date rape can feel pressure not to report the crime, or feel embarrassed or responsible for the attack.
- Recognising when a child is at risk
Too many children are physically, sexually and emotionally abused and when this happens, it is up to adults to speak up.
- Sexual abuse
If you suspect sexual abuse or have been told about it by a child, you must report it.
- Sexual abuse - helping your child
As a parent, you have an important role in helping your child recover from sexual abuse.
- Sexual assault
Sexual assault is any unwanted sexual behaviour or activity that makes the victim feel uncomfortable, frightened or threatened.
- Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) can help you change unhelpful or unhealthy habits of thinking, feeling and behaving.
- Dhacdooyinka naxdinta/dhaawaca leh iyo carruurta - talooyin loogu talagalay waalidiinta (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Somali)
Waxaad ilmahaaga ka caawin kartaa sidii aad uu uga soo kaban lahayd dhacdo welwel ama cabsi leh.
- Family violence - tips for children and young people
Children and young people are not to blame for violence at home, it's not your fault and it's not a special secret
- It-trawma u t-tfal - pariri għall-ġenituri (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Maltese)
Int tista' tgħin lit-tfal tiegħek jirkupraw minn esperjenzi inkwetanti jew li jbeżżgħu.
- Kärɛc ye dhuruup bɛ̈i ku mïth - wël ke nyuuth tënë amïdhiëëth (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Dinka)
Yïn lëu ba mɛnhdu kuɔny bï pial në kärɛc cï röt looi yiic ka kärɛc ëyen riääcic.
- Kiwewe na watoto - vidokezo kwa wazazi (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Swahili)
Unaweza kumsaidia mtoto wako kupona kutokana na hali ya uzoefu aliyopitia yenye kuhuzunisha au ya kutisha.
- Miidhaa balaa fi Ijoollee – gorsa maatiidhaaf (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Oromo)
Ijoolleen keessan dhiphina ykn miidhaa muudannoo Miidhaa balaa irraa akka dandamatan gargaaruu ni dandeessu.
- Sang chấn và trẻ em - lời khuyên cho cha mẹ (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Vietnamese)
Quý vị có thể giúp con mình hồi phục sau khi trải qua những trải nghiệm đau buồn và đáng sợ.
- Trauma and children - newborns to two years
Babies and toddlers can be as affected by trauma as any other family member.
- Trauma and children - two to five years
Preschoolers may not have the words but will show their distress at traumatic events through changes in behaviour and functioning.
- Trauma and children – tips for parents
Help your child recover from distressing or scary experiences with these userful tips
- Trauma and families
When a family is affected by trauma, everyone will react in a different way.
- Trauma and primary school age children
Children look to their parents or carers to judge how to deal with a crisis.
- Trauma and teenagers - tips for parents
Teenagers may turn to friends rather than parents for support in times of trauma and distress.
- Trauma and teenagers – common reactions
A teenager may be deeply upset by a traumatic event, but not share their feelings with their parents.
- Trauma at mga bata - mga tip para sa mga magulang (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Filipino)
Matutulungan mo ang iyong anak na makabangon mula sa nakababahala o nakakatakot na mga karanasan.
- Trauma e infancias: consejos para padres (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Spanish)
Puedes ayudar a tu hijo/a a recuperarse de experiencias angustiantes o aterradoras.
- Trauma i djeca – savjeti roditeljima (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Croatian)
Možete pomoći svom djetetu u oporavljanju od iskustava koja su ga uzrujala ili uplašila.
- Trauma nei bambini: consigli per i genitori (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Italian)
Puoi aiutare tuo/a figlio/a a riprendersi da esperienze angoscianti o spaventose.
- Travma ve Çocuklar: Ebeveynler için İpuçları (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Turkish)
Çocuğunuzun sarsıcı veya korkutucu deneyimlerden sonra toparlanmasına yardımcı olabilirsiniz.
- Τραύμα και παιδιά – συμβουλές για γονείς (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Greek)
Μπορείτε να βοηθήσετε το παιδί σας να ανακάμψει από οδυνηρές ή τρομακτικές εμπειρίες.
- Травма и дети: советы родителям (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Russian)
Вы можете помочь своему ребенку справиться с последствиями стрессовых или пугающих событий.
- Траума и децата - совети за родители (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Macedonian)
Можете да му помогнете на вашето дете да закрепне од потресни или страшни искуства.
- تروما و اطفال – نکاتی برای والدین (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Dari)
شما میتوانید به طفل تان کمک کنید تا از تجربیات ناراحت کننده یا ترسناک بهبود یابد.
- تروما و کودکان – نکاتی برای والدین (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Farsi)
شما میتوانید به فرزندتان کمک کنید تا از تجربههای ناراحتکننده یا ترسناک بهبود یابد.
- ٹراما (صدمہ) اور بچے – والدین کی لیے تجاویز (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Urdu)
یہ تجاویز آپ کو اپنے بچے کے ساتھ ان کے تجربات کے بارے میں بات چیت کرنے میں مدد کر سکتی ہیں۔
- ܛܘܼܪܵܦܵܐ (ܡܲܫܝܲܡܬܵܐ) ܘܫܲܒܼܪܹܐ ـ ܢܲܨܝܼܗܲܬܹܐ ܩܵܐ ܐܲܒܼܵܗܹܐ (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Assyrian)
ܐܲܚܬܘܿܢ ܡܵܨܝܼܬܘܿܢ ܕܗܲܝܸܪܝܼܬܘܿܢ ܩܵܐ ܫܲܒܼܪܵܘܟܼܘܿܢ ܕܫܲܪܹܐ ܒܣܵܡܵܐ ܡܼܢ ܢܸܣܝܵܢܹܐ ܡܲܥܝܸܩܵܢܹܐ ܕܠܸܒܵܐ ܝܲܢ ܡܲܙܕܸܥܝܵܢܹܐ.
- ዘሰንብድ ተመኵሮን ቈልዑን – ምኽርታት ንወለዲ (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Tigrinya)
ውላድኩም ካብ ዘጨንቕ ወይ ዘፍርሕ ተመክሮታት ንኽሓዊ ክትሕግዝዎ ትኽእሉ ኢኹም።
- आघात र बालबालिका - अभिभावकहरुका लागि सुझावहरू (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Nepali)
तपाईंले आफ्नो बालबालिकालाई कष्टदायी वा डरलाग्दो चोटको अनुभवहरू बाट निको पार्न मद्दत गर्न सक्नुहुन्छ।
- ट्रॉमा (सदमा) और बच्चे - अभिभावकों के लिए सुझाव (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Hindi)
आप अपनी संतान को परेशानी-भरे या डरावने अनुभवों से उबरने (रिकवर होने) में सहायता कर सकते हैं।
- ਸਦਮਾ ਅਤੇ ਬੱਚੇ - ਮਾਪਿਆਂ ਲਈ ਸੁਝਾਅ (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Punjabi)
ਤੁਸੀਂ ਆਪਣੇ ਬੱਚੇ ਨੂੰ ਦਿਲ ਦਹਿਲਾ ਦੇਣ ਵਾਲੇ ਜਾਂ ਡਰਾਉਣੇ ਅਨੁਭਵਾਂ ਤੋਂ ਉਭਰਨ ਵਿੱਚ ਮੱਦਦ ਕਰ ਸਕਦੇ ਹੋ।
- அதிர்ச்சிகரமான சம்பவம் மற்றும் குழந்தைகள் - பெற்றோருக்கான உதவிக் குறிப்புக்கள் (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Tamil)
துயரம் அல்லது பயமூட்டும் அனுபவங்களில் இருந்து உங்கள் குழந்தை மீண்டு வருவதற்கு நீங்கள் உதவலாம்.
- వ్యాకులత మరియు పిల్లలు - తల్లిదండ్రులకు చిట్కాలు (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Telugu)
మీ బిడ్డ బాధాకరమైన లేదా భయానక అనుభవాల నుండి కోలుకోవడానికి మీరు సహాయం చేయవచ్చు.
- චිත්තවේගී කම්පනය සහ දරුවන් - දෙමාපියන් සඳහා උපදෙස් (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Sinhalese)
ඛේදජනක හෝ බියජනක අත්දැකීම්වලින් ප්රකෘති තත්වයට පැමිණීම සඳහා ඔබට ඔබේ දරුවාට උදව් කළ හැකිය.
- စိတ်ဒဏ်ရာနှင့် ကလေးများ - မိဘအတွက် အကြံပြုချက်များ (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Burmese)
သင့်ကလေး စိတ်သောကများ၊ ကြောက်ရွံ့စရာများမှ ပြန်လည်သက်သာလာရန် သင် ကူညီပေးနိုင်ပါသည်။
- တၢ်ပျံၤတီၢ်တၢ်ဆါဒီးဖိသၣ်တဖၣ် - တၢ်ဟ့ၣ်ကူၣ်လၢမိၢ်ပၢ်တဖၣ်အဂီၢ် (Trauma and children – tips for parents - S'gaw Karen)
နမၤစၢၤနဖိဘျါက့ၤလၢတၢ်လဲၤခီဖျိလၢအကိၢ်အဂီၤမ့တမ့ၢ်လီၤပျံၤတဖၣ်သ့လီၤ.
- ភាពតក់ស្លុត និងកុមារ – គន្លឹះសម្រាប់ឪពុកម្ដាយ (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Khmer)
អ្នកអាចជួយកូនរបស់អ្នកឱ្យជាសះស្បើយឡើង វិញពីបទពិសោធន៍ទុក្ខព្រួយឬភ័យខ្លាច។
- 트라우마와 아이들 – 부모님을 위한 조언 (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Korean)
자녀가 괴롭거나 무서운 경험에서 회복할 수 있도록 도울 수 있습니다.
- 創傷與兒童 – 給父母的建議 (Trauma and children – tips for parents - Chinese Traditional)
您可以幫助孩子從令人痛苦或恐懼的經歷中恢復。
Reviewed on: 23-02-2022