Intimate Partner Violence. Gender-Based Violence: A Comprehensive Guide

This chapter provides a foundation for the understanding of what is termed intimate partner violence. Intimate partner violence is a global phenomenon affecting all genders and relates to acts by a current or ex-partner to another person. Such acts may be physical, emotional, psychological or financial but in most cases will have a detrimental effect on the survivor. It is now much better understood that such acts can directly affect a survivor’s physical and mental health and have long-lasting, life-changing impacts. In this chapter, we aim to provide some context to the issues of intimate partner violence, which are often experienced by women and can occur across all age ranges. We provide the context for intimate partner violence as well as background about the known prevalence, which leads to changes in policy and how different authorities may deal with instances of intimate partner violence. Finally, we provide a case study that shows the complexity of intimate partner violence.