“When I go out on the street, I always remember what he told me: don't stop looking

back, because I will always be there... behind you... without you seeing me”.
(Anonymous testimony of a woman victim of violence)

LESSON 3
TYPES OF VIOLENCE

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Lesson 3. TYPES OF VIOLENCE
The violence that is perpetrated on women has different forms of expression,
worldwide the most frequent form found is that exercised by the couple; they are
behaviors that are harmful to women, both adults and young, and include
physical abuse, sexual assault and psychological abuse (ONU, 2006). The passage
of time in the fight against this type of violence leaves us with other
manifestations that we will address in this lesson, such as:

- Economic violence
- vicarious violence
- Environmental violence
- Child-to-parent violence

The content of this lesson will be focusing on violence against women by their
partner or ex-partner, in general, as it is, as we indicated, the most frequent type
of violence; In Chapter 6, other manifestations of violence will be addressed, such
as:

- Sexual violence
- Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
- Prostitution
- Trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation
- Forced marriages

As we have seen in previous lessons, partner abuse refers to the sum of the
physical and psychological aggressions that the aggressor repeatedly
perpetrates on his partner (Lorente, 1998).

The fact that the abuse occurs in a place as private as the domicile... the home,
means that the aggressor can achieve the objectives he pursues and although
this violence starts at the beginning of the relationship, it will not end with the
end of it. Breaking up the relationship does not mean that the violence stops.
Many women continue to suffer attacks and threats after the breakup.

Although the majority of the victims when they denounce, they only refer to the
beatings, the violence goes beyond physical aggressions, since other
manifestations of violence will always appear together. Physical aggressions are
always accompanied by previous psychological aggressions. A partner's
aggression will be demeaning for the woman; Among women's demonstrations
at police headquarters, the expression “I prefer a slap, because that pain goes

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away” is often frequent; the damage caused by the constant signs of contempt,
humiliation, insults, contempt... leave an indelible mark and as they say "it is a
pain that lodges in the soul and is difficult to cure"; let us remember that the
violence practiced by the couple is a sign of power and authority and fulfills the
objective of subordinating the woman, keeping her subordinate to him, this is
achieved by exercising violence. But it is necessary to bear in mind that physical
violence does not always have to exist, because the objective of the aggressor is
not to cause an injury, but to subdue the woman. Alberdi (2005) assures that
“each aggression must be seen as a knot, especially strong, within a continuous
web of coercion. There are many ways in which psychological abuse, emotional
abuse, and physical violence against women appear. All of them are
conceptualized as violence as long as they are forms of coercion and imposition
of behaviors that men exercise to subjugate their women.

The most frequent classification that we will find, as we commented previously

and according to the literature, is that of physical, psychological and sexual
violence (Corsi, 1994) (Amor, Echeburúa, Corral, Zubizarreta, & Sarasua, 2002)
others also include economic violence (Alberdi & Matas, 2002; Torres Falcó, 2004).

We have chosen the classification that Velasco (2018) addresses because it does
so from a practical perspective based on the findings found at the police
headquarters:

1. Psychological violence
Psychological violence is one of the most common ways of exercising dominance
and power. It is the most difficult to detect. Initially, this behavior is manifested
in a veiled way as protection and as an "expression of love"; the woman does not
perceive it for what it really is: control disguised in loving appearance. These are
prohibitive behaviors for women, which will end up undermining her capacity
and autonomy. Examples of behaviors of this type of violence are jealousy,
control over schedules, going out of the house and the activities that she
performs, the censorship of clothing or the prohibition of certain friends, among
others.

In addition, there are other behaviors that harm the victim, such as ridiculing her,
laughing at her, undervaluing her... These are situations that can be carried out
both in public and in private. Psychological violence is the most difficult
aggression to prove due to the difficulty of proving abuse. It produces terrible

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consequences on women's health; They tend to last for a long time, and since
they are not perceived by the victim as "aggression", they pose an added problem
to get out of the relationship, since she tends to minimize and justify the
aggressor. Psychological abuse will be the prelude to physical violence, without a
doubt; the aggressor will lead her to social and family isolation, because little by
little she will become dependent on the aggressor, she will minimize this type of
behavior and she will feel increasingly vulnerable.

The victimizer exercises psychological abuse through hostile behavior, through

repeated verbal and/or non-verbal communication. These behaviors cause in the
victim perception of contempt, humiliation, guilt, fear, shame, confusion; It will
be accompanied by harassment, devaluation, threats, jealousy, coercion:

"He doesn't hit me, he just pushes me

"I don't like your friends... from time to time... what hurts me the
they put wrong ideas in your head." most is that he tells me, - "I'm with
another, I love her more than you, but
we're going to stay together for the girl,
she's beautiful and you... look at you...
you disgust me”
"I prefer you to be at home and not If you leave and I meet someone I'm
work, so you can take care of the going to break your legs. I'll cut off your
child." head and whoever's with you."

"You don't need to work, that's “I am going to kill you all; to you
what I'm here for." and to your family, shitty foreigner, go
to your country”.
"You at home, which is where you "You're shit, you worth nothing." "Who
have to be." is going to love you?"

"If you go to court I will go to jail, "You don't even have a job, where are
but the child will be left without a you going to go?"
father and without a mother
because he will enter a shelter."

"You're only good for cleaning and "You worth nothing."

you don't even do it right." "You do
not know how to cook".

"Even the air that you breathe isn’t "If you're not mine, you won't be
yours." anyone's."

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 "If I see you with a boy, I’ll cut his "If I see her with someone, I'll beat her
neck." up."

"You disgust me". "Look at you,

you're fat"

Extracted from Velasco, L. (2018)

As for the type of insults they receive, according to statements by women in

police stations, they are bitch, useless, crazy, whore, slut, liar, fat, stupid, etc.

Psychological violence also manifests itself in the form of shouting, throwing the
woman out of the house, expiating her, controlling her cell phone, locking her in
the house and not letting her out, harassing her, etc.

2. Physical violence
It is a much more visible type of violence. The aggressor maintains abusive
behaviors that generate physical damage to the victim. We are talking about any
type of physical aggression: slapping, pushing, hair pulling, cigarette burns,
kicking, punching, pinching, or more serious injuries such as attempted
strangulation, bruising, trauma, stabbing, and even death. The aggressor can use
his own fist or an object within reach of her, he can also throw the victim's body
against the wall, against the furniture, down the stairs, etc.

We can find some behaviors in their milder forms: forcefully grabbing her arm or
neck, shaking, covering her mouth with her hand forcing her not to be heard
screaming, grabbing her hair, lifting her off the ground, throwing her to the
ground or dragging her across the floor.

The aggressor usually breaks objects, such as doors, windows, furniture,

crockery, pictures, etc.; There have been cases of mistreatment of pets, to make
the victim suffer (related to environmental violence)

These violent behaviors are also accompanied by threats and coercion.

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3. Sexual violence
Women who are victims of violence often do not take sexual violence into
account. On numerous occasions, the aggressor will force the woman to have
sexual relations, against her will, since she considers that she is within her rights
as her partner. He thinks that the woman belongs to him, she is her property, he
believes that he can abuse her to satisfy his desires, the woman is forced to
accept for fear of what might happen if she does not agree with his requests.
When the victims decide to talk about it, they say that it is humiliating, and that
the abuse is constant and varied. They state that it is better not to reject him to
avoid a new aggression or that he assaults her sons and daughters.

4. Economic violence
Economic violence refers to the control or limitation of economic resources. It is
the perpetrator who decides what is bought and when. It even has the victim's
income (if any). Some women say in their statements to the police that they do
not have access to bank accounts and that they do not know the income of their
partners, that the aggressors do not allow them to buy what they need to meet
their most basic needs (buy food, diapers, medications, etc).

We had observed that there are many ways to exercise violence, even though
each one of them has its particularities, all of them have an objective in comun:
subdue the woman and bend her before her aggressor.

5. Vicarious violence
The use of this term is relatively recent. It is seen as another form of violence
against women and refers to the use of sons and daughters to harm the mother.

At first it was considered that boys and girls were indirect victims of the violence
that the father exerted against the mother. They are currently considered direct
victims, as contemplated by Organic Law 1/2004 since its modification in 2015.

The signs of vicarious violence against minors are the following:

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 - Using children to harm women.
- Manifest through threats that they will take away their children.
- Threatening to kill them. The most common phrase is “I will hit you where
it hurts the most”.
- If the woman has broken up with the aggressor and there is no longer
coexistence, she will take advantage of the moments in which the children
are with the father (visitation regime) to suspend medical treatments.
- Insulting, threatening and humiliating the woman taking advantage of the
moment of collection/delivery of the minors.
- Disqualifying the woman and her family in the presence of children.

In Spain, as indicated above, there have been legislative changes in relation to

this serious issue.

Until 2018, if the sons and daughters who were direct victims of the father's
violence required psychological attention, the mother could not make the
decision without parental authorization, which meant that the boys and girls
were in a defenseless situation.

At present, if there is a conviction and while there is criminal responsibility or

criminal proceedings have been initiated against the father, for attempting
against the life, physical integrity, freedom, moral integrity or sexual freedom
and indemnity of the children or minor daughters, or for attacking their partner
or former partner, it will be enough with the consent of the mother to receive
psychological assistance from the minors. The mother must previously inform
the aggressor.1

If the woman has not filed a complaint, but receives assistance from the victim’s
assistance services, she may also seek psychological assistance for her sons and
daughters with the victim accreditation from said services. If the sons and
daughters have reached the age of 16, parental consent will not be required.

After the legislative changes, as a general rule, the visitation regime should be
suspended, provided that the father of the minors is involved in criminal
proceedings (for threatening life, physical integrity...) although the judicial
authority may establish a visit, communication or stay in a motivated manner

1Article 156 of the Civil Code after the modifications introduced by Royal Decree-Law 9/2018, of August 3, on urgent

measures for the development of the State Pact against gender violence and Law 8/2021 of June 2 by which reforms
civil and procedural legislation to support people with disabilities in the exercise of their legal capacity.

7
based on the interest of the minor or the minor after evaluating the parent-child
relationship. 2

A shocking example of this type of violence that took place in Spain was known
as the "Breton Case" of which we make a brief review:

In September 2011, Ruth Ortiz, mother of Ruth and José (6 and 2 years old,
respectively), informed her husband José Bretón that she wanted to request a
divorce.

Shortly after, the father picks up his daughter and his son to spend the weekend
with them, in accordance with the visiting regime.

Bretón communicates to the Police the disappearance of his daughter and son,
alleging that they were in a park and had disappeared.
They never showed up. Bretón took them to the farm, supplying them with
tranquilizers for later burning them.

Bretón killed his children to later incinerate their corpses, in order to leave no
trace.
In July 2013 he was sentenced to 40 years for two counts of murder and one count
of simulating kidnapping. In March 2015, he reduced his sentence to 25 years

Without a doubt, this terrible crime, the murder of a boy and a girl by his father,
marked a before and after in demonstrating that vicarious violence should be
considered as gender violence.

Another recent example (2021): "the case of the girls of Tenerife"

Tomás Gimeno threatened his former partner indicating that she would not see
the girls again (1 and 6 years old).
The father used his boat to get rid of the minors without leaving any trace. Of the
three only the body of the older girl appeared.

The first study on vicarious violence in Spain has recently been published; This
study intends to know the characteristics of this violence, which has undoubtedly
been increasing, and to adopt the necessary measures for its elimination.

2Article 94 of the Civil Code and article 544 ter of the Law of Criminal Procedure after the modifications introduced with

the approval of Law 8/2021 of June 2 and Organic Law 8/2021, of June 4, of integral protection to the childhood and
adolescence against violence.

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Between 2000 and 2021, 50 minors have been murdered; the aggressor in most
cases is the biological father (80%) and 60% of them had a criminal record for
gender violence; Undoubtedly, the most striking fact is that the murders occur
when the sons and daughters are in the care of the father, either because they
have shared custody or during the days assigned by the visitation regime. 3

It is necessary to continue advancing to prevent this type of violence as well as to

improve the protection of the victims.

6. Environmental violence
The environmental violence refers to the psychological violence which goes
against the women; it doesn’t manifest in a direct way against women, but trough
those things she most cares about. As it was mentioned before, the victimizer,
with the purpose of causing fear, suffering and submission on the victim, he will
brake objects, such as doors, windows, furniture, crockery, pictures, personal
items, there has even been cases of abusing pets, to make the victim suffer, even
to drive very fast in the vehicle when the victim and her children are there.

7. Child-to-parent violence
We include this type of violence, which arises in the field of family relationships,
contemplated at the legislative level as domestic violence.
We make this brief review given that the studies carried out on child-to-parent
violence contemplates women again as victims of violence.
The majority of the cases of this violence has women as victims. We are not
referring to single-parent families because it has been shown that the aggressors,
being able to choose between the father and the mother, choose the latter to
exercise violence; This could be due to the fact that the children perceive the
woman as weak and with less power compared to the father (Ortega 2015).
This vision of weakness would be influenced by the socialization process and the
transmission of roles and stereotypes that give more power to the male figure.

3 Vaccaro, S. (2021) Vicarious violence: An irreversible blow against mothers. Study on data analysis of cases of extreme

vicarious violence. Board of Andalusia. Association of Women Feminist Psychology.

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8. Technological violence
Gender-based violence has also found a place in the virtual space: technological
violence or cyberbullying is another form of violence that involves aggression
against women sustained over time and causes serious psychological damage.
The aggressor uses Information and Communication Technologies through mail,
WhatsApp, social networks, forums or blogs, to harm the victim.

Although it is much more frequent among adolescent and young couples, the
truth is that there are many women who, after managing to break up with the
perpetrator, start another battle: that the perpetrator forgets about her and
leaves her alone, which does not happen in most of the cases, even if there is
some measure of prohibition of communication and approximation. In
professional practice we find that victims are subject to all kinds of threats,
coercion, insults, control, identity theft, distribution of compromised images,
dissemination of information (real and false), etc.; Younger women being the
most exposed to being victims of these criminal acts and the ones that normalize
them the most.

International research by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)

4
indicates that offenders use new technologies to monitor phone text messages
(SMS) or email accounts to blackmail partners or ex-partner with photos or
videos. In a study carried out by this association in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Colombia, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, Pakistan and the
Philippines, the following forms of technological violence were identified, among
others (Malhorta, 2015, as cited in Velasco, 2015)

- Taking and/or uploading and distributing intimate photos and/or videos

without consent: the woman agreed to have the photos taken for private
use but did not consent to their sharing online; the girl/woman was
unaware that she was being filmed during a sexual act, then the video was
posted and distributed online.
- Altering photos/videos and posting them on porn sites: a photo of the
woman's face attached to another's naked body, then uploaded to porn
sites and tagged with the woman's profession and city of residence.
- Harassment: the woman receives insulting text messages; specifically, she
receives comments and messages online that use sexualized slurs.

4 https://www.apc.org/es

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 - Stalking: online monitoring of activities.
- Extortion/threats: a girl receives messages urging her to have sex or her
family will be harmed; a woman receives threats that intimate photos of
her will be published unless she gets back into a relationship with the
perpetrator.
- Accessing and/or disclosing private information: e-mail account intrusion,
social network account intrusion and sending messages to contacts
without the woman's knowledge, leaking documents and private
information to the public.
- Creation of false profiles/identity theft: a profile that contains the name
and photo of the woman but with derogatory descriptions such as
“stripper”, “condom tester” and “professional prostitute”.

Examples of violent behavior in the couple relationship

Threats - "If you leave me, I'll kill you."

- "If I see you with another, I'll kill him."
The goal of threats is to block you. It is - "If I leave you, who will love you?".
logical that you are afraid because you do - "If you leave me, I'll kill myself, without you
I can't live."
not know if he can carry out his threats.
- "I will take away the children".
- "I'll show you're crazy."
- "If you do not remove the complaint, I will
make your life impossible."
- "You get out of jail, not from the cemetery."

Intimidation - He yells at you.

- He breaks things.
Only he has the power and control of the - He looks at you intimidatingly
situation, and he wants you to learn it well
and accept it, so he will use certain
behaviors to make you fear him
Emotional abuse - You make me do it."
- "If you did what I tell you, this would not
It has made you believe that you are happen."
inferior. You feel guilty about everything - "You don't know how to do anything."
that happens to you - "You are a worthless girl".
- "You are crazy".

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Use of male privilege - Treat you as if you were his servant.
- Not allowing you to study or work.
Take control of the house, of the education - "I rule here".
of the children. - “You do what I say, period”
- He will use them to threaten you: “I will take
Use of sons and daughters
the children from you”.
- Through them he/she will send you
It will make you feel guilty and responsible
aggressive messages.
for any behavior of the children.
- He will take advantage of the visitation
regime to manipulate them

- He will force you to have sex, even if you

don't want it.
Sexual abuse - He will demand sexual practices against
your will

- It will not allow you to access the money,

even if you work.
- Sometimes you will lack the money to cover
the most basic needs.
- It will assign you a payment that you must
manage properly for the expenses of the
Economic abuse house and the children.
- It will prohibit you from studying or
working; if you work it will force you to
leave your job.
- You will not know family income, bank
accounts, etc.
- The objective is that you completely depend
on him and lose all possible contact with
your environment.
- It will alienate you from your family and
Isolation
friends.
- He'll lock you in the house.
- It will control what you do, and who you go
with

Source: adapted from Velasco (2018)

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 REMEMBER

The message in this sense is very clear: A man who exercises violence against
his partner can NEVER be a good father.

Vicarious violence IS gender violence.

It is a violence that is exercised against the couple and that extends to the sons
and daughters; the aggressor can attack his children or be present when he
attacks the mother.

The attacks can be physical or psychological.

The goal of the aggressor when exercising vicarious violence is to do more harm
to the victim.

The perpetrator knows that the best way to do even more harm to the woman
is through the harm he can cause to her sons and daughters.

To know more...

https://www.antena3.com/noticias/sociedad/estos-son-casos-violencia-vicaria-
mas-conocidos-espana-2021-fueron-
7_20220404624a9706de6e680001ede39d.html

https://efeminista.com/crimenes-violencia-vicaria-denuncias-previas/

References
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Lorente Acosta, M. (2001). Mi marido me pega lo normal. Planeta.

Alberdi, I., & Matas, N. (2002). La violencia doméstica. Fundación La Caixa.

Amor, P. J., Echeburúa, E., Corral, P., Zubizarreta, I., & Sarasua, B. (2002).
Repercusiones psicopatológicas de la violencia doméstica en la mujer en función

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de las circunstancias del maltrato. Revista Internacional de Psicología Clínica y de
la Salud, 2(2), 227–246

Corsi, J. (1994). Violencia familiar. Una mirada interdisciplinaria sobre un grave

problema social. Paidós. Buenos Aires.

Malhotra, N. (2015). Basta de violencia: derechos de las mujeres y seguridad en

línea. Buenas preguntas sobre violencia relacionada con la tecnología.
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Ortega, D. (2015) La violencia filioparental ¿Un subtipo de violencia de género?

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Torres Falcón, M. (2004). Familia. En Sanmartín J.(coord.). El laberinto de la

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Vaccaro, S. (2021) Estudio sobre el análisis de datos de casos de violencia vicaria

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Velasco Riego, L. (2015). Diseño y evaluación de un programa de intervención

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