What is family violence
Family violence is defined under section 9 of the Family Violence Act 2018 as violence inflicted by any person against another person who they are or have been in a family/whānau relationship with.
Violence within family/whānau is defined as:
- physical abuse
- sexual abuse
- psychological abuse.
It includes:
- dowry-related violence arising from concerns about gifts, goods, money property or other benefit given to or received by a party to a marriage proposal
- violence against a person, including patterns of behaviour that are made up of a number of acts that are all or any of physical abuse, sexual abuse and psychological abuse that may be coercive or controlling and cumulatively causes the person harm
- psychological abuse of tamariki that occurs if a tamaiti sees or hears the physical, sexual or psychological abuse of a person that te tamaiti has a family/whānau relationship with or is at real risk of seeing that abuse occurring.
