Home Free defines Domestic Violence as
Domestic violence is the systematic use of abuse tactics physical, sexual, emotional, social, and/or economic — to gain and maintain control over an intimate partner.
In other words
DV is domestic violence (if you’re talking about abuse in families or between family members) or dating violence (if you’re talking about abuse within a teen relationship). We say a relationship is a DV relationship when there is abuse happening in that relationship, not just once or twice, but over a period of time. At Home Free, we focus on serving people who are experiencing DV in an intimate relationship
People experience abuse in lots of different ways, including emotional/mental, verbal, sexual, physical, social, and economic. DV can happen to anyone, regardless of age, sex, class, gender, race, size, or sexual preference. The two main aspects of DV are power and control. An abuser uses different abusive tactics to try and maintain power and control over their partner. People who are or have experienced abusive relationships are called survivors. In the legal and criminal system, they are called victims, while abusers are called perpetrators.