The Power And Control Wheel - Practical Ways To Recognize Domestic Violence

After reading the posts about the domestic violence incident involving Janay and Ray Rice, and while going through the #WhyIStayed hashtag that shared the stories of other abused women, I came across this image.

The Power and Control Wheel above shows how domestic violence is not only about physical and/or sexual abuse, but also involves a range of tactics of psychological, emotional and economic abuse.

Domestic violence is usually characterised by power and control, with an abuser controlling their victims through coercion and fear in order to get their own way. One of the main ways abusers control and intimidate their partners and family members is through psychological/emotional abuse.

The Power and Control Wheel helps men especially, and also women to see that the mind games, controlling behaviours and threats form a pattern of power that is used to dominate and control their women and children.

Physical and sexual violence, or the threat of it, is the 'rim' that holds the 'spokes' of the wheel together. Just one incident of physical and sexual violence – or even the threat of it - can be enough to make women and children live in fear.

The wheel also shows that psychological violence can easily ‘slip' over into physical and sexual violence at any time.