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Behavioral Signs
Some signs of abuse are clear: physical
injuries, repeated injuries, injuries that are explained in
a manner unlikely to occur, bilateral injuries, injuries that
appear in a pattern left by the object used in the assault.
In addition to the physical injuries, there are behavioral
indicators that IPV/DV may be occurring.
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Case Study
3. Rhoda
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Rhoda and Jim have been married for 38 years. Rhoda
has been suffering from severe headaches for about 10
years. At a recent holiday dinner, Rhoda's niece Hannah
notices, once again, how Jim always accuses Rhoda of
flirting with one of her 4 brothers-in-law. Inevitably,
at every family get together, after a few drinks, Jim
starts this behavior. Hannah has always liked her aunt
Rhoda, despite not seeing her very often, and her shy,
self-effacing manner. But Jim has always been jealous.
Hannah knows that he also doesn't allow Rhoda to spend
much money. She turns over her paycheck to him and he
gives her a small allowance. That is all she's allowed
to spend. Jim has not allowed Rhoda go to the have the
headaches evaluated. Jim does all the shopping in the
home. Besides work and the occasional family occasion,
Rhoda doesn't really get out much. Hannah is curious
and asks Rhoda if she's ok. Rhoda begins to cry and
tells Hannah that Jim has been physically abusing her
ever since he started drinking-about 10 years ago-after
Jim had been laid off from his high level management
position with a Fortune 500 company. That was about
the same time that her headaches started.
Hannah offers to take Rhoda to see her primary care
provider, a nurse practitioner, for her headaches. When
the NP screens for IPV/DV, this time, Rhoda admits to
the abuse.
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Sometimes it is hard to identify an abusive
relationship, or to admit to it, if it is happening to you.
There are clear signs to help in the identification of abuse.
Consider IPV/DV when faced with the following (USDHHS, 2005a):
- Monitoring how the partner spends all of her time;
- Criticism of even little things;
- Constant accusations of unfaithfulness;
- Prevention or discouragement of partner seeing
friends or family, or going to work or school;
- Anger when drinking alcohol or using drugs;
- Controls how any money is spent;
- Controls the use of needed medicines;
- Humiliates the partner in front of others;
- Destroys property or things that the partner cares
about;
- Threatens to hurt the partner, the children, or
pets, or does cause hurt (by hitting, beating, pushing,
shoving, punching, slapping, kicking, or biting);
- Uses or threatens to use a weapon against the partner;
- Forces sex against the partner's will;
- Blames the partner for his/her own violent outbursts.
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