V is for Violence. What are we talking about here?

Violence can happen anywhere, at home, at school, at work, or in your community.

What is Violence?

Violence is when someone does or says something to hurt or have control over another person. Violence is a desire to hurt, threaten, or frighten someone else on purpose. It is usually repeated over time and takes many forms. There are many types of victims and many types of abusers.

Violence can have terrible effects on a person that can last forever. What we do know is that NOBODY deserves to be abused.

Violence can take many forms and includes:

Physical Abuse
This is when someone injures another person. It could be by hitting, punching, pinching, arm-twisting, slapping, biting or other forms of physical contact. It can also happen when someone hits another person with an object, uses a weapon against them or restrains them in a physical way.
Emotional or Psychological Abuse
This is when someone attempts to hurt, cause guilt, fear or anxiety in another person through what they say and do. This form of abuse can make you afraid or feel bad about yourself. Name calling, insults, yelling, taunting, harassing and stalking, excluding someone from friends and family, and even the 'silent' treatment, are all examples of this type of abuse.
Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse includes all unwanted sexual contact or activity. It is any sexual activity that is unwanted, unsafe, degrading, was not agreed to or was forced upon someone unable to agree. It can be physical and include petting, fondling, intercourse, rape, forced prostitution, use of pornography, and sex with weapons. It can also be emotional and include insulting comments, humiliation, criticism of someone's sexuality, and trying to control another person's sexual relationships. People who commit sexual abuse are most often known to their victims.
Economic or Financial Abuse
This is when someone controls, takes or steals a person's money or financial resources without their consent. It includes withholding money for food or medicine or making someone beg for money for necessary items like clothes or children's items. Economic or financial abuse can also involve keeping a person from attending school, forbidding employment, controlling their choice of job or harassing someone at their workplace.
Spiritual abuse
Spiritual abuse includes trying to prevent someone from practicing their religious or spiritual beliefs, making fun of their beliefs, being forced to raise children in another religion or spiritual choice, and using these beliefs to control the victim.

Other definitions related to abuse include:

Cyber Violence
Technology has enabled people to bully others in new ways. Instant messaging, chat rooms, text messaging, digital cameras, web cams, web sites and blogs have made communicating fast and fun. But posting nasty messages or pictures, spreading rumours, tricking people into revealing information about themselves and forwarding it to others are all ways to abuse, embarrass and intimidate people. And once the information is out there, you can't control where it goes or who is seeing it.
Bullying
Bullying occurs when one person or a group of people try to control another to dominate and get their way. Bullying can be physical, emotional or sexual harassment. It causes fear and prevents the person from doing what they want, or forces them to do things they didn't choose. Bullying isn't something that just happens to little kids. Bullying can happen when you are a child, teenager, or adult, and it crosses all racial, religious, gender, social and economic backgrounds.
Criminal Harassment
Criminal harassment is often called stalking, and causes you to fear for your safety. Common forms of criminal harassment are when someone follows you, calls you at home, at a friend's house or at your workplace, or watches you.
Dating Violence
Dating violence can happen on a first date or with a regular partner at anytime within a relationship. It often occurs when a dating partner feels jealous, has been drinking, or when one partner says no to sex.
Family Violence
Some people abuse members of their own family. Violence in families can happen when people are married or living together. It can be kids bullying their parents/guardians or siblings, or it might be parents/guardians abusing the kids. It might also be parents/gardians being abusive to each other. When children are exposed to family violence they can become sad, angry, afraid, depressed, or feel guilty and helpless to do anything about the abuse.

Stand Up. Reach Out. Step in. Stop the Violence.