3.1 Identify misconceptions surrounding domestic abuse in relation to: • what domestic abuse is • the victim • the perpetrator

This guide will help you answer 3.1 Identify misconceptions surrounding domestic abuse in relation to: • what domestic abuse is • the victim • the perpetrator.

Domestic abuse affects many people across the UK. It can involve physical harm, emotional harm, sexual abuse, controlling behaviour, financial abuse and isolation. Even with increasing awareness, many myths and false beliefs still exist. These misconceptions can stop people from recognising abuse and from offering the right help.

This guide covers common misunderstandings about domestic abuse connected to what it actually is, the victim, and the perpetrator.

Misconceptions About What Domestic Abuse Is

Many people still hold narrow views of domestic abuse. These ideas can lead to missed signs and delayed support.

Viewing Domestic Abuse Only as Physical Violence

A common myth is that domestic abuse only happens when there is physical harm. While physical violence is a part of abuse, emotional abuse, controlling or coercive behaviour, sexual abuse and economic abuse are equally damaging. These types of abuse often take place without physical harm but still have serious effects on the victim’s health, safety and freedom.

Thinking It Only Happens Between Married Couples

Some people think domestic abuse only occurs within marriage. Abuse can happen in any intimate or family relationship. This includes dating partners, ex-partners, same-sex couples, and between relatives such as adult children and elderly parents.

Belief That It Only Happens in Certain Social Groups

Domestic abuse happens across all income levels, education levels, and cultural backgrounds. Assuming it only affects certain communities can lead to missed opportunities for prevention and support in other groups.

Seeing It As Private Family Matters

Some think domestic abuse is a private issue that should be sorted within the family or relationship. This belief ignores the fact that abuse is a serious crime and a public safeguarding concern. Treating it as a private matter often leaves victims isolated and unsafe.

Confusing Arguments With Abuse

Arguments in relationships are normal at times, but abuse is different. Abuse involves ongoing patterns of controlling, harmful, or threatening behaviour designed to dominate or frighten another person.

Thinking It’s Rare in the UK

Domestic abuse is not rare. Millions of people in the UK experience it each year. Holding the belief that it is uncommon can stop people from recognising warning signs or taking reports seriously.

Misconceptions About the Victim

Victims are often judged based on stereotypes that do not reflect reality. Misunderstanding victims can prevent effective support and can add to their trauma.

Belief That Victims Can Simply Leave

It is often seen as simple for a victim to leave the abusive relationship. In reality, leaving can be very dangerous. The risk of serious harm or death often increases when a victim tries to leave. Barriers such as financial dependence, lack of safe housing, emotional trauma, threats to children, and cultural pressures can make leaving extremely hard.

Thinking Victims Are Weak

A damaging myth is that victims stay because they lack strength or intelligence. Victims often show great resilience every day just by surviving in an unsafe environment. Abuse can break down confidence and self-worth over time, making escape harder.

Believing Victims Provoke the Abuse

Some people wrongly believe victims must have done something to cause the abuse. This view shifts blame to the victim instead of the perpetrator. Abuse is always the choice and responsibility of the person committing it.

Stereotypes Based on Gender

Victims are often portrayed as only women. Whilst the majority of reported victims are women, men can be victims too. Male victims may face extra stigma, making them less likely to seek help.

Assuming Victims Do Not Care About Their Children

Another false belief is that if victims stay in the relationship, they do not care about protecting their children. In reality many victims stay to protect their children from worse harm such as homelessness, further violence, or being taken by the perpetrator. Leaving without a plan can sometimes put children at greater immediate risk.

Thinking Victims Look a Certain Way

There is no single profile of a victim. Victims can be any age, religion, sexuality, culture or occupation. Domestic abuse does not discriminate.

Misconceptions About the Perpetrator

False beliefs about perpetrators can make it harder to identify abuse or hold the perpetrator to account.

Thinking Perpetrators Are Always Violent in Public

Some assume a perpetrator will be openly aggressive or controlling outside the home. Many abusers behave charmingly in public and reserve abusive behaviour for private spaces. This can make it harder for others to believe the victim’s account.

Belief That Alcohol or Drugs Cause Abuse

Substances can influence behaviour, but they do not cause abuse. Abuse is a deliberate act of control and harm. Many perpetrators abuse without being under the influence. Blaming substances sidesteps responsibility.

Seeing Only Men as Perpetrators

Although most perpetrators are men, women can be perpetrators too. Abuse occurs in both heterosexual and same-sex relationships.

Thinking Perpetrators Have Obvious Mental Health Problems

While some abusers may have mental health issues, many function well in other areas of life. They may hold jobs, maintain friendships, and seem calm or respectable outside the relationship. Linking abuse only to mental illness is misleading and can excuse behaviour.

Belief That Perpetrators Lose Control

A common myth is that abuse happens because the perpetrator loses control in the heat of the moment. In reality, abuse is often planned and calculated to maintain dominance over the victim. Many perpetrators choose who, when, and how to abuse.

Thinking Abusers Are Easy to Spot

Perpetrators can appear kind, caring and generous to outsiders. Many cover their behaviour with charm, social respectability, and community standing. This can lead to disbelief when victims come forward.

How Misconceptions Affect Support and Safeguarding

False beliefs can cause delays in recognising abuse and in taking action. Professionals who hold these myths may give advice that places the victim at risk. Friends or relatives might encourage a victim to go home and ‘sort it out’. Police or health care staff may underestimate the severity if they associate abuse only with visible injuries.

Misconceptions can block victims from receiving urgent help. They may feel judged or blamed, causing shame and silence. Perpetrators benefit from myths that mask their behaviour or shift blame away from them.

Combating these myths requires accurate information, open discussion, and training for workers.

Addressing Misconceptions in Practice

Workers in health and social care should challenge false beliefs through conversation, education and clear recording of facts. This supports safeguarding procedures and builds accurate records if legal action is needed.

Ways to address include:

• Use clear definitions of domestic abuse including all forms such as emotional, sexual and economic abuse
• Listen to victims without judgement, allowing them to describe their experiences in their own words
• Ask open questions to gain a complete picture of the situation
• Avoid language that hints blame towards the victim
• Record observed signs such as fear, withdrawal, controlling partner behaviour, changes in mood, or unexplained injuries
• Share information with safeguarding leads or multi-agency groups when risk is identified

Building Awareness

Public education is key to breaking myths. Campaigns, workshops and school discussions can help people identify abuse early and understand its forms. This supports prevention and early intervention.

Key points to promote:

• Abuse is not limited to physical harm
• Victims can be anyone
• Perpetrators can be anyone
• Leaving is complex and can be dangerous
• Abuse is a choice made by the perpetrator

Training for staff can include role play, case studies and scenario work to spot signs hidden beneath myths.

Record Keeping and Confidentiality

Recording facts accurately helps challenge myths. For example, noting patterns of controlling behaviour can show abuse without visible injury. Protecting confidentiality encourages victims to speak openly without fear of information being misused.

Steps include:

• Keep records secure
• Share only with authorised staff
• Record exact words used by victims
• Avoid personal opinion in notes unless it links directly to safeguarding concerns

Supporting Victims Effectively

Challenging misconceptions influences how support is offered. Victims who fear being judged or blamed may avoid help. Workers should:

• Offer safe spaces for discussion
• Provide information on local support services
• Help with safety planning before leaving
• Validate feelings and experiences
• Avoid telling a victim to ‘just leave’ without a safety plan

Challenging Perpetrator Myths

Professionals can confront false beliefs by using factual information in meetings or interventions. Examples include explaining how abuse is planned and long-term, describing how it can happen without physical harm, and showing how public behaviour can differ from private abuse.

Multi-agency work with police, probation, housing and health care ensures perpetrators are correctly identified and risks reduced.

Final Thoughts

Domestic abuse remains surrounded by many misleading ideas. These myths affect victims, perpetrators and society’s response to abuse. By recognising and challenging these false beliefs, workers can provide better support and keep people safer.

Domestic abuse is varied in its form and impact. It can be hidden and complex. Myths narrow how people view abuse and stop them from seeing the real danger. Each false belief removed makes space for clear thinking and effective action. Health and social care workers play a direct role in this process. Through accurate knowledge, open communication and respectful listening, you can make a positive difference to how victims are supported and how perpetrators are managed.