Intimate Partner, Relationship and Acquaintance Violence

While attending a University, students enter a new environment and culture, both on an academic and personal level. Simultaneously, students engage in many new relationships, for instance with roommates, new friends, or romantic and sexual partners. While we flourish in healthy relationships, we can also get involved in unhealthy, abusive relationships.

Intimate partner violence is...

A situation in which one partner is physically, emotionally or sexually abused by the other partner. It also includes non-intimate relationships such as roommates and acquaintances. Intimate Partner violence can occur between parties of the opposite sex or between individuals who are the same sex.
A range of behaviors and rarely occurs as an isolated incidents.
Typically planned and repeated as part of a pattern to control the relationship.
Everyone's problem, including the victim, their family and friends, and the whole community.
Punishable by Washington State Law.

Types of Abuse:

This following list includes types of abuse that may be present in violent relationships. These behaviors may be present at different points during the relationship, to varying degrees, or not at all.

Emotional abuse: Includes actions by a partner that systematically destroy a person's sense of self-esteem and self- worth. Emotional abuse includes jealous behavior, ignoring feelings, belittling values, restricting social activities with others, and withholding love, approval, and affection.

Verbal abuse: Using words to injure another person. This includes name calling, insults, threats of physical and/or sexual violence, threats of self-harm and/or suicide, humiliation, intimidation, and exaggerated criticism for mistakes.

Sexual abuse: Includes any forcible sexual activity that occurs without consent. This can range from unwanted touching to forcible penetration. Sexual abuse also includes verbal criticism of one's body.

Physical abuse: Includes any behavior that causes or threatens bodily harm. Some examples are hitting, slapping, grabbing, breaking things, or threatening to do any of the above.

To take an interactive online quiz, testing if you might be in an abusive relationship, click here.

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