25/07/2022
Family violence, or intimate partner violence, can look like many different things - its not always what you've seen in movies. For this reason, many times, people in abusive relationships don't realise that what they are experiencing is abuse. The most common types of abuse are broken down into eight segments in the Power and Control wheel, seen below. KLWV, and many non-violence providers, use this model as an outline to guide our practice. To learn more about the Power and Control Wheel read on below; if you can relate to behaviours outlined on the wheel, please contact us, or your local non-violence provider, to speak to someone who can help.
The Duluth Power and Control wheel, by Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, is represented by eight segments outlining some of the most common types of abuse perpetrated by men against women as way to control, or maintain power over, their partner; this is why power and control is at the center of the wheel. The outer rim of the wheel, physical and s*xual violence, is, for many, the most common modes of abuse that hold everything else together and allow for the other abuses.
The Duluth model is a representation of a male-abusing-female relationship not as an oversight of female perpetrators, or in the absence of understanding of same s*x or transgender relationships, but instead as acknowledgement of the heteronormative spread of abusive relationships and also the societal imbalance of power between the s*xes. While females can also be the perpetrators of violence they do not always fit within the same abusive behaviours, and can sometimes be abusive in response to be battered over time.
Same s*x and transgender relationships where violence is present face differing, and sometimes more, barriers due to the overall societal oppression experienced by those in our rainbow community.
The choice, by Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, not to show the model as a gender neutral is in acknowledgment of the power imbalances between the male and female genders. If you are a member of the rainbow community the power and control wheel can be explored with your counsellor for how it does or does not represent your experience.
