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Economic abuse

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Economic abuse is a form of abuse when one intimate partner has control over the other partner's access to economic resources, which diminishes the victim's capacity to support themselves and forces them to depend on the perpetrator financially.

It is related to, or also known as, financial abuse, which is the illegal or unauthorized use of a person’s property, money, pension book or other valuables (including changing the person's will to name the abuser as heir), often fraudulently obtaining power of attorney, followed by deprivation of money or other property, or by eviction from own home. Financial abuse applies to both elder abuse and domestic violence.

A key distinction between economic abuse and financial abuse is that economic abuse also includes the control of someone's present or future earning potential by preventing them from obtaining a job or education.

There needs to be more research done on economic abuse. Professionals who come across domestic abuse cases should not disregard economic abuse.

Role in domestic violence[edit]

Economic abuse in a domestic situation may involve:

·        Preventing a spouse from resource acquisition, such as restricting their ability to find employment, maintain or advance their careers, and acquire assets.

·        Preventing the victim from obtaining education.

·        Spend victim's money without their consent and creating debt, or completely spend victim's savings to limit available resources.

·        Demanding that all expenses are accounted for

·        Exploiting economic resources of the victim.^[1][2][3]

In its extreme (and usual) form, this involves putting the victim on a strict "allowance", withholding money at will and forcing the victim to beg for the money until the abuser gives the victim some money. It is common for the victim to receive smaller amounts of money as the abuse continues. This also includes (but is not limited to) preventing the victim from finishing education or obtaining employment, or intentionally squandering or misusing communal resources.

Controlling mechanism[edit]

Economic abuse is often used as a controlling mechanism as part of a larger pattern of domestic abuse, which may include verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Physical abuse may include threats, attempts to kill the spouse, beatings, or breaking items. By restricting the victim's access to economic resources, the victim has limited recourses to exit the abusive or violent relationship.

The following are ways that abusers may use economic abuse with other forms of domestic violence:

·        Using physical force, or threat of violence, to get money.

·        Providing money for sexual activity.

·        Controlling access to a telephone, vehicle or ability to go shopping; other forms of isolation.

·        Threatening to evict the spouse and children from the house without financial support.

·        Exploiting the victim's economic disadvantage.

·        Destroying or taking resources from the spouse and children.

·        Blaming the victim for an inability to manage money; or instigating other forms of economic abuse, such as destruction of property.

A combination of or a pairing of all the different forms of abuse can be used to coercively control the victim. Abusers can make it harder for the victim to maintain or obtain a job by constantly being around the victim at their job, or by interfering with the victim in other ways. If the victim identifies with the LGBTQ+ community, then the abuser may threaten to “out” them to their employer. Victimization occurs across all socio-economic levels, and when victims are asked why they stay in abusive relationships, "lack of income" is a common response.  As well as a refusal to pay for child support or court ordered spousal support. By denying the victim money they become financially dependent on the abuser for food, shelter, clothing and other necessities. In some cases, the abuser may even withhold items such as medicine and personal hygiene products. Abusers may force the victim to obtain a credit card only to completely ruin the credit score through negligent activities.

Job-related impacts[edit]

There are several ways that abusers may impact a victim's economic resources. As mentioned earlier, the abuser may prevent the victim from working or make it very difficult to maintain a job. They may likewise impede their ability to obtain an education. Frequent phone calls, surprise visits and other harassing activities interfere with the spouse's work performance. In couples in which the spouse is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer  (LGBTQ), the abuser may threaten to "out them" with their employer.^[7]

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence in the United States reports that:

·        25–50% of victims of abuse from a partner have lost their job due to domestic violence.

·        35–56% of victims of domestic violence are harassed at work by their partners.

Impact of lack of economic resources[edit]

By denying the victim access to money, such as forbidding the victim from maintaining a bank account, he or she is totally financially dependent upon the abuser for shelter, food, clothing and other necessities. In some cases, the abuser may withhold those necessities, also including medicine and personal hygiene products. They may also greatly limit their ability to leave the abusive situation by refusing to pay court-ordered spousal or child support.^[7]

Abusers may also force their spouses to obtain credit and then through negligent activities, ruin their credit rating and ability to get credit.^[7]

Managing economic abuse[edit]

There are several ways to manage economic abuse: ensure one has safe access to important personal and financial records, ensure one's research activities are not traceable and, if they believe that they are going to leave the relationship, they should prepare ahead of time.

Role in elder abuse[edit]

Main article: Elder financial abuse

The elderly are sometimes victims of financial abuse from people within their family:

·        Money or property is used without their permission or taken from them.

·        Their signature is forged for financial transactions.

·        Coerced or influence to sign over deeds, wills or power of attorney.

·        Deceived into believing that money is exchanged for the promise of lifelong care.

Family members engaged in financial abuse of the elderly may include spouses, children, or grandchildren. They may engage in the activity because they feel justified, for instance, they are taking what they might later inherit or have a sense of "entitlement" due to a negative personal relationship with the older person. Or they may take money or property to prevent other family members from getting the money or for fear that their inheritance may be lost due to cost of treating illnesses. Sometimes, family members take money or property from their elders because of gambling or other financial problems or substance abuse.

It is estimated that there may be 5 million elderly citizens of the United States subject to financial abuse each year.

Laws[edit]

United States[edit]

The Survivors’ Empowerment and Economic Security Act was introduced by the 110th United States Congress to the Senate (S. 1136) and House of Representatives (H.R. 2395) to allow for greater economic freedom for domestic violence victims by providing short-term emergency benefits where needed, guaranteeing employment leave and unemployment compensation, and prohibit insurance restriction or job discrimination to domestic violence victims.

Abusive Power and Control

See also: Coercive power

Psychological manipulation

Main article: Psychological manipulation

Braiker identified the following ways that manipulators control their victims:^[3]

• Positive reinforcement: includes praise, superficial charm, superficial sympathy (crocodile tears), excessive apologizing, money, approval, gifts, attention, facial expressions such as a forced laugh or smile, telling the victim that they love them, and public recognition.

Silent treatment

Main article: Silent treatment

The silent treatment is sometimes used as a control mechanism. When so used, it constitutes a passive-aggressive action characterized by the coupling of nonverbal but nonetheless unambiguous indications of the presence of negative emotion with the refusal to discuss the scenario triggering those emotions and, when those emotions' source is unclear to the other party, occasionally the refusal to clarify it or even to identify that source at all. As a result, the perpetrator of the silent treatment denies the victim both the opportunity to negotiate an after-the-fact settlement of the grievance in question and the ability to modify his/her future behavior to avoid giving further offense. In especially severe cases, even if the victim gives in and accedes to the perpetrator's initial demands, the perpetrator may continue the silent treatment so as to deny the victim feedback indicating that those demands have been satisfied. The silent treatment thereby enables its perpetrator to cause hurt, obtain ongoing attention in the form of repeated attempts by the victim to restore dialogue, maintain a position of power through creating uncertainty over how long the verbal silence and associated impossibility of resolution will last, and derive the satisfaction that the perpetrator associates with each of these consequences.^[24]

In an intimate relationship

Main articles: Intimate relationship, Battered person syndrome, Domestic violence, and Intimate partner violence

Control development

Often the abusers are initially attentive, charming and loving, gaining the trust of the individual that will ultimately become the victim, also known as the survivor. When there is a connection and a degree of trust, the abusers becomes unusually involved in their partner's feelings, thoughts and actions.^[6] Next, they set petty rules and exhibit "pathological jealousy". A conditioning process begins with alternation patterns of loving followed by abusive behavior. According to Counselling Survivors of Domestic Abuse, "These serve to confuse the survivor leading to potent conditioning processes that impact on the survivor's self-structure and cognitive schemas." The abuser projects responsibility for the abuse on to the victim, or survivor, and the denigration and negative projections become incorporated into the survivor's self-image.^[6]

Coercion and threats

Main articles: Coercion and threats

A tool for exerting control and power is the use of threats and coercion. Coercive control is also known as entrapment. The victim may be subject to threats that they will be left, hurt, or reported to welfare. The abuser may threaten that they will commit suicide. They may also coerce them to perform illegal actions or to drop charges that they may have against their abuser.^[37] At its most effective, the abuser creates intimidation and fear through unpredictable and inconsistent behavior.^[6] Absolute control may be sought by any of four types of sadists: explosive, enforcing, tyrannical, or spineless sadists. The victims are at risk of anxiety, dissociation, depression, shame, low self-esteem and suicidal ideation.^[39]

Coercion is harmful, repetitive, tactics that are meant to harm and scare the victim. It is a methodological set of behaviours and maintenance that establish power and control over a victim. Control tactics include gaslighting, time, spending, dieting and socializing. One challenge is distinguishing micromanagement from specified gender roles in relationships in coercive control. Stalking is a unique form of emotional dominance and in some cases, it is completely normal in relationships; seen as typical behaviour for the abuser. It has the possibility to continue after the relationship has ended. Coercive control can predict, motivate or be the cause of domestic violence in relationships. Even if it does not predict domestic violence, it still has the same characteristics regardless of it leading to more. When there is abuse in relationships, the victim is more inclined to please the abuser.

Strangulation

Strangulation, a particularly pernicious abusive behavior in which the abuser literally has the victim’s life in his hands, is an extreme form of abusive control. Sorenson and colleagues have called strangulation the domestic violence equivalent of waterboarding, which is widely considered to be a form of torture.^[38]

Intimidation

Main article: Intimidation

Abused individuals may be intimidated by the brandishing of weapons, destruction of their property or other things belongings, or use of gestures or looks to create fear.^[37] For example, threatening to use a gun or simply displaying the weapon is a form of intimidation and coercive control.^[40]

Economic abuse

Main article: Economic abuse

An effective means of ensuring control and power over another is to control their access to money. One method is to prevent the abuse victim from getting or retaining a job. Controlling their access to money can also be done by withholding information and access to family income, taking their money, requiring the person to ask for money, giving them an allowance, or filing a power of attorney or conservatorship, particularly in the case of economic abuse of the elderly.^[37]

Minimizing, denying and blaming

Main articles: Minimisation (psychology), Denial, and Victim blaming

The abuser may deny the abuse occurred to attempt to place the responsibility for their behavior on the victim. Minimizing concerns or the degree of the abuse is another aspect of this control.^[37] If the abuser is incarcerated, they may try to defend themselves, or say that the victim is lying.

In the workplace

See also: Workplace bullying

A power and control model has been developed for the workplace, divided into the following categories:^[41]

• overt actions
• covert actions
• emotional control
• isolation
• economic control
• tactics
• restriction
• management privilege

Workplace Psychopaths

Caring Professions

Article Evaluation

Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you? Everything is relevant to the articles that I am reviewing. The formatting was very odd for both articles.

Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added? Everything so far is up to date, but there is information that can be added to certain spots. New information can be added as there have been updated articles.

What else could be improved? The formatting of the pages as they are confusing

Is the article neutral? Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position? The articles are neutral, however, the bias is that males are always the perpetrator and the females are the victim/survivor. Males can be victims too, they are less likely to be abused, but there are cases of it happening.

Are there viewpoints that are over-represented, or underrepresented? Male perpetrators and female victims even though those roles can be reversed.

Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article? Yes everything works, everything lines up.

Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?