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financial abuse which can result in the control over an individuals' survival, and.
isolation whereby an individual is controlled by segregating him/her from family, friends and community. .
All the above are defined as abuse and one type may lead to another.
Many people believe that women and children are the only victims of family violence. Others believe that if young children and women are not the only victims they are at least the more common victims. Neither point of view is correct. The most common form of intimate violence is between siblings. It is also the most commonly overlooked form of family violence. It is so much a part of family relations that this perhaps explain why it is overlooked. Most parents view conflict between siblings as an inevitable part of growing up. Why do siblings abuse one another? The social learning theory contends that children learn violence in their family.
Sociologist Suzanne Steinmetz from the United States was the first person to examine violence between siblings. She found in the U.S. that there are more than 36,000,000 individual acts of sibling violence each year. Most of the incidents consist of slaps, pushes, kicks, bites and punches, but there are also incidents of dangerous behavior occurring as well. She estimates that more than 100,000 children annually face brother or sisters with guns or knives in their hands.
Other victims of family violence that haven't captured public attention are the elderly and parents abused by adolescent children. Unless a child kills or maims a parent, it is unlikely that the child's violent behavior will come to public attention. As a result, parents of abusive children suffer from tremendous anxiety, depression and guilt that often keep them as psychological prisoners in their own homes.
As the population is getting older, the abuse of the elderly is getting some recognition. Unlike younger victims, older victims of family violence tend not to be linked to many social networks such as schools or work settings.
