gender-based-violence

Gender-Based Violence

Gender-based violence (GBV) is violence directed at a person because of their gender, or that affects one gender disproportionately. It is the umbrella over Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, Sexual Violence, Stalking and Coercive Control — the harms the tools and resources in this vault aim to prevent, interrupt, document or respond to.

In this vault

IncludesIntimate Partner Violence
IncludesSexual Violence
IncludesCoercive Control
IncludesDomestic Family and Sexualised Violence

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domestic-family-and-sexualised-violence

Domestic Family and Sexualised Violence

Domestic, family and sexualised violence (DFSV) is the framing used across Australia — and by Insight Exchange — to name the spectrum of violence and abuse occurring within intimate, family and domestic relationships, including its sexualised dimensions. It maps onto Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence while deliberately keeping family relationships and lived experience in view.

In this vault

subtype_of::Gender-Based Violence
centres::Victim-Survivor

coercive-control

Coercive Control

Coercive control is a pattern of domination — isolation, intimidation, monitoring, and financial and emotional control — that defines much Intimate Partner Violence and Domestic Violence, and which physical assault alone fails to capture. It is the dynamic that makes Tech-Enabled Abuse so potent: surveillance and information-control are not incidental to the abuse, they are the abuse. Tools designed for stranger danger often miss it; survivor-centred resources such as My Safety Kit are built around it.

In this vault

subtype_of::Gender-Based Violence
manifests_in::Tech-Enabled Abuse
related_to::Stalking

sexual-violence

Sexual Violence

Sexual violence is defined by the WHO as any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, or other act directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting. It spans a wide continuum — rape and attempted rape, sexual assault and unwanted sexual contact, sexual coercion, sexual harassment, child sexual abuse, forced marriage, and the denial of contraception or sexual-health protection. Because consent is central, the defining feature is the absence of freely given agreement rather than the presence of physical force. It can be perpetrated by an intimate partner — overlapping with Intimate Partner Violence — or by acquaintances and strangers (non-partner sexual violence).

It is a major and persistently under-reported form of Gender-Based Violence. WHO estimates that about 8% of women aged 15 and over (roughly 263 million) have experienced non-partner sexual violence at least once since age 15, and that around 31.6% of women worldwide have experienced partner violence or non-partner sexual violence over their lifetime. Children are also heavily affected: a 2023 global analysis estimated lifetime prevalence of childhood sexual violence at about 18.9% for girls and 14.8% for boys. Stigma, fear and disbelief mean recorded figures substantially understate the true scale, shaping how survivor-centred Reporting and Disclosure tools must be designed.

In this vault

Sources

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12100463/

Tags: #concept #violence

intimate-partner-violence

Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is defined by the WHO as behaviour by an intimate partner or ex-partner that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm — including physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviours. It is the most common form of Domestic Violence and is best understood not as isolated assaults but as an ongoing pattern of domination; the surveillance, isolation and monitoring of Coercive Control are often the core of the abuse rather than incidental to it. This is also why Tech-Enabled Abuse is so potent in IPV: an abuser with shared accounts, devices and location data has ready-made tools for control.

IPV is strikingly prevalent. WHO estimates that about 25.8% of ever-partnered women aged 15–49 have experienced physical and/or sexual IPV at least once in their lifetime, making it the most widespread form of Gender-Based Violence against women. The Lancet’s 2018 global analysis similarly found roughly one in four ever-partnered women affected over their lifetime, with around 13% reporting partner violence in the past year. IPV is also a leading context for femicide: a large share of women killed worldwide die at the hands of an intimate partner.

In this vault

subtype_of::Gender-Based Violence
related_to::Coercive Control
related_to::Domestic Violence
manifests_in::Tech-Enabled Abuse

Sources

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women
https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(21)02664-7/fulltext

Tags: #concept #violence

stalking

Stalking

Stalking is a perpetrator’s use of a repeated, unwanted pattern of harassing or threatening tactics that causes a victim to feel fear or concern for their safety. Tactics range from following, showing up at a home or workplace, and sending unwanted gifts or messages, to surreptitious, technology-facilitated methods such as GPS tracking, spying through cameras or Stalkerware, and relentless contact via phone, text and social media. The defining elements are repetition and induced fear; this overlaps closely with Coercive Control and with Location Tracking Abuse, since the same monitoring that terrorises a victim also enables further control. Most victims know their stalker — intimate partners and acquaintances are the most common perpetrators.

It is widespread. The CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey finds that roughly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 10 men experience stalking during their lifetime, with state-level female lifetime prevalence ranging from about 15.6% to 35.2%. Nearly 58% of female and 49% of male victims were first stalked before age 25. US Bureau of Justice Statistics data has estimated millions of stalking and harassment victims each year. Crucially, the technology-facilitated tactics that require no physical proximity are often the hardest to detect, so their true prevalence is likely underestimated — a core challenge for Tech-Enabled Abuse response.

In this vault

subtype_of::Gender-Based Violence
enabled_by::Stalkerware
related_to::Location Tracking Abuse
related_to::Coercive Control

Sources

https://www.cdc.gov/intimate-partner-violence/about/about-stalking.html
https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/svus_rev.pdf

Tags: #concept #violence

domestic-violence

Domestic Violence

Domestic violence (often used interchangeably with domestic abuse) is a pattern of abusive behaviour used by one person to gain or maintain power and control over another within a domestic setting — a current or former spouse, partner, or family member. It encompasses physical, sexual, psychological and economic harm, and in practice is rarely a single incident: the abuse that matters most is the sustained pattern of Coercive Control — isolation, intimidation, surveillance and restriction — that physical-injury counts alone fail to capture. While it overlaps heavily with Intimate Partner Violence, “domestic violence” is the broader frame, also covering abuse by relatives and other household members.

Globally it is one of the most common forms of Gender-Based Violence. WHO estimates that roughly 25.8% of ever-partnered women aged 15–49 have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner at least once in their lifetime, and that about 31.6% of women worldwide (around 840 million) have experienced physical/sexual partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. The lethal edge is stark: in 2023 an estimated 140 women and girls were killed every day by an intimate partner or family member. Tools and resources in this vault aim to prevent, interrupt, document or respond to these harms, increasingly mindful that abusers also weaponise technology — see Tech-Enabled Abuse.

In this vault

subtype_of::Gender-Based Violence
characterised_by::Coercive Control
related_to::Intimate Partner Violence
manifests_in::Tech-Enabled Abuse

Sources

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499891/

Tags: #concept #violence