The National Domestic Violence Hotline defines financial abuse as a situation in which an abusive partner exerts dominance and power over the victim's financial circumstances.

When many people hear about domestic violence, they think of a romantic partner hitting his wife, sexually abusing her, or otherwise exerting physical violence against her.

While physical and sexual abuse both play very significant roles in domestic violence, so does financial abuse. Moreover, the common tendency to overlook financial abuse in domestic violence cases only makes it that much more insidious.

With October being Domestic Violence Awareness Month, an understanding of how financial abuse feeds into domestic violence has never been more essential.

Breaking down the connection between financial abuse and domestic violence

When abusers engage in domestic violence, their ultimate objective is to keep their victims under their control. Money plays a huge role in this, hence why many perpetrators control their victims' access to funds.

In a lot of cases, financial abuse can manifest as the perpetrator refusing to allow their victim to go to work or keep a job. Likewise, other manifestations of financial abuse are as follows:

• Intentional acts meant to prompt the victim's job termination
• Maxing out/running up credit card (or other) debt in their name
• Taking out loans in their name
• Refinancing loans or mortgages without permission
• Destroying bank cards
• Changing passwords on shared accounts that the victim relies upon to access funds
• Forcing a victim to work only for the perpetrator to then collect the victim's earnings
• Getting rid of/trashing a victim's living essentials (medicine, clothes, hygienic products, etc.)
• Controlling access to funds and demanding proof of how every penny was spent

In most cases of financial abuse, the perpetrator primarily maintains full access to all funds. They may also become threatening or violent if the abused individual seeks to regain control over their finances or access money in a different manner.

Intentional sabotage

Perpetrators of domestic violence know that without access to money, their victims will have a much harder time leaving any abusive situation. Abusers also tend to hold this over their victims' heads, cruelly telling them they have nowhere else to go.

In light of this, it's no coincidence that the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) documents more than 90% of domestic violence situations involve financial abuse.

However, outside support systems for victims, such as personal friends, relatives, or even women's shelters, can help them escape financially abusive situations. People facing domestic violence often have an easier time leaving when they know a safety net is waiting for them on the outside.

Without this support, victims may believe they'll face homelessness or destitution if they leave. They may also feel compelled to return to an abusive situation, even if they do eventually make an escape.

Sadly, this is exactly what perpetrators of domestic violence are counting on.