In the dark shadows of domestic violence, children and pets often become silent victims, caught in the crossfire of abusive relationships. What should be loving bonds forged through shared experiences and milestones can instead be twisted into tools of manipulation and control.
Children, as witnesses of domestic abuse, experience it firsthand. Beyond this, abusers can use children in their attacks on women.
Abusers employing coercive control tactics often deliberately undermine a woman's role as a mother as part of their overall strategy of domination. Research has shown that these perpetrators attack the mother-child bond through various means. They may manipulate children into participating in the abuse against their mother, effectively turning them into unwitting accomplices.
Manipulative partners often employ psychological tactics to maintain control over their victims, including the threat of child custody battles. By warning their significant others that leaving the relationship will result in losing custody of their children, these abusers create a powerful form of emotional blackmail. This coercive strategy exploits the victim's deep-seated fears and parental instincts, effectively trapping them in an abusive relationship. Such threats not only demonstrate the abuser's willingness to use children as pawns but also highlight the complex, multifaceted nature of domestic abuse that extends beyond physical violence to encompass emotional and psychological manipulation.
Pets & Domestic Violence
Pets are frequently exploited as tools of control in domestic abuse situations, with abusers leveraging the strong emotional bond between victims and their animals to exert power. This manipulation takes various forms, including coercive control through threats of harm to pets, emotional abuse by rehoming pets without consent, physical abuse of animals to instil fear, and economic abuse by restricting access to pet care resources. These tactics serve to increase the victim's dependence on the abuser and create significant barriers to escape.
 The link between pet abuse and domestic violence is well-established, with many professionals in the field acknowledging that pets are often used as a means of control in abusive relationships.