Abuse is a pattern of harmful behaviors directed at achieving and maintaining power over an individual.

Healthy relationships involve mutual respect, trust and consideration. The opposite is true of abusive relationships. In all cases, the person perpetrating the abuse aims to exert power and control over an often helpless victim.

Abuse can take various forms including:

• Physical abuse. The willful infliction of physical pain or injury. Physical abuse includes shoving, punching, slapping, pinching, hitting, kicking, hair pulling, choking and other types of violent behavior. In severe cases, it may result in death.
  
  
• Sexual abuse. The infliction of non-consensual sexual contact of any kind. It may include rape or sodomy, coerced nudity or sexual exhibitionism, inappropriate touching, photographing a victim in suggestive poses or forcing them to look at pornography, forcing sexual contact with a third party or any other type of unwanted sexual contact.
  
  
• Psychological abuse. The infliction of mental or emotional anguish. When a person behaves in a way that causes fear, mental anguish and emotional pain or distress to others, the behavior can be regarded as abusive. It can range from name-calling or the “silent treatment” to intimidating and threatening an individual. Psychological abuse can also include neglect or isolating a victim from family, friends and regular activities – either by force, threats or through manipulation (e.g., controlling access to finances).

Abuse can also be a combination of any of these forms or others (e.g., domestic violence). In addition, abuse can occur among people of all ages (e.g., child abuse, elder abuse), genders, races, educational backgrounds and socioeconomic groups. However, certain groups are at greater risk for abuse. In the United States, American Indian or Alaskan Native women and men report more violent victimization than do women and men of other racial backgrounds.

Regardless of background, physical assault is widespread among adults in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, an estimated 1.9 million women and 3.2 million men are physically assaulted each year.

Most victims of domestic and sexual abuse are women. Sexual abuse of females often starts at an early age. More than half of all rapes of females occur before age 18 and 22 percent of these rapes occur before age 12.

In the United States, nearly 5.3 million women age 18 and older experience physical abuse and about 1.5 million women are raped or sexually assaulted each year. In most cases, violence against women is perpetrated by an intimate partner, spouse or someone acquainted with the victim.  

In 2003, there were about 906,000 abused children in the United States, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Neglect – inadequate food, housing, clothes, medical care or supervision – is the most common form of child abuse. Infants age 3 and younger experienced the highest rate of abuse, with girls being slightly more victimized than boys. In most cases, child abuse is perpetrated by parents.

Abuse almost always results in psychological damage to its victims. It can lead to increased anxiety and stress, low self-esteem and mental illnesses including major depression, eating disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa) and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ongoing abuse may also put victims at risk for substance abuse or dependence, high-risk sexual behaviors (e.g., unprotected sex, promiscuity), poor health, poor academic or work performance, suicidal ideation and untimely death. In addition, research indicates that children who experience domestic violence are also more likely to experience domestic and psychological abuse as adults or grow up to become abusive themselves.