Summary Most women (89%) believed that what was done to them was a crime. Most women (60%) recalled the emotional impacts of the incident when discussing the most serious event. Among domestic violence survivors, physical and emotional/physical abuse were most commonly reported as the worst incidents of abuse. Among women who had experienced non-domestic violence, sexual and emotional/sexual abuse were most commonly reported as the most serious. 44% of women said that other people were present when they were being abused. 98 children were present during the incident of abuse that women considered most serious. 41% of the objects used to hurt women were common household objects. Over half of the abusers were intimate partners/ lovers or spouses.

In order to gather information about one particular incident, women were asked to talk about the incident of abuse that was the most serious for them personally. Initially, responses to this question were classified according to the four types of abuse: economic, emotional, physical and sexual. As data analysis progressed, however, it became clear that this classification was inadequate, since many women spoke of combinations of abuse types. The classifications of abuse types subsequently developed, are shown in Table 8.

The classification in Table 8 allowed for a more accurate representation of women’s experiences. It shows, to some extent, the complexity of violence against women and that abuse types cannot easily be separated, since most women experience a combination at any one time: over half of the women reported more than one type of abuse when describing their worst incident.

The most common type of abuse described as being the worst was emotional/physical abuse (29%). Emotional abuse — either as a category on its own or in combination with other types of abuse — was referred to by 63% of women as having been most serious. Despite the fact that 58% of women had experienced economic abuse at some time, very few (3%) reported this type of abuse as being the most serious. When asked to isolate the worst incident, women who had experienced economic abuse usually described an event in which economic abuse co-occurred with other types of abuse.

Whether victims knew their abusers or not affected which types of abuse they identified as most serious. Women who knew their abuser(s) were the most likely to identify emotional/physical abuse as having been the worst (Figure 4). Participants who did not know their abuser(s) chose emotional/sexual incidents, followed by sexual abuse as the most serious.

				Figure 4: Choice of most serious type of abuse according to whether abuse was known of not
	Emotional
	Physical
	Emotional/ physical
	Sexual
	Emotinal/ sexual
	Combination

Women were asked why they chose particular incidents as having been the most serious. Three main factors are used by women when choosing the most serious event:

he extent of damage to themselves or others at the time (e.g. pain, fear, physical damage).



the extent of damage to themselves or others after the event (e.g. emotional scars).



the degree to which they felt helpless, innocent, shocked or isolated.

Participants were most likely to explain their choice of the most serious incident in terms of the negative impact on their emotional and psychological well-being after the abuse. In this regard, 34% of women indicated that they became fearful, stressed, had ‘emotional scars’ and that their sense of self-worth was destroyed. Two said these effects had limited their ability to work or study.

The second most common reason for identifying particular incidents as the most serious dealt with the physical consequences. Fourteen per cent said the physical suffering or subsequent need for treatment made the incident the worst for them. Physical problems or illness, for example miscarrying due to being beaten while pregnant, were also mentioned. Three women said that becoming pregnant as a result of a rape made the incident the most serious.

Intense fear (8%) at the time of the abuse (such as fear for their lives), as well as shock and surprise (10%) were cited by women as reasons for choosing one incident as the most serious. In some cases, a particular incident was identified as the most serious because the abuse was experienced for the first time. For example, for some of the rape victims, it was their first experience of sex. Almost as many participants (7.5%) said that the presence of others during the abuse or their fear for the impact it might have on their children made the incident the worst.

Several women (5%) said that they chose particular incidents because of the helplessness they felt at the time and because of their innocence as victims. This included the views of two women who said that not provoking or consenting to the interaction made the incident seem to be the worst.

Some (3.5%) said their trust and love for the abuser had been destroyed after the abuse, and that this made the incident most serious. Included in this category were those women who said the abuse completely destroyed their relationship with the abuser and that they had left home, or had wanted to leave home. Hence, isolation and rejection were experienced.

Five women (1%) said that a particular incident was the worst because it was repeated so often.

Participants were then asked whether the event they chose as the most serious was easy to isolate from others. Most said choosing a particular incident was straightforward, although responses differed for each type of abuse. To isolate the most serious incident of abuse in intimate relationships is more difficult because it is often ongoing, pervasive and subtle (i.e. isolation, control and intimidation).

Sexual incidents were most easily isolated as the worst type of abuse: 84% who selected sexual abuse as the worst said it was easy to isolate this incidents from others. Emotional/physical events were, by comparison, difficult to single out: 58% said these incidents were easy to isolate. Making this decision may be affected by whether abuse occurs once or repeatedly: emotional/physical abuse is more likely to be ongoing than sexual violence, making a serious event of emotional/physical abuse more difficult to differentiate from others.

Another indicator is the relationship of the abuser to the victim (Figure 5): incidents perpetrated by partners or relatives were more difficult to isolate as having been the worst than those committed by strangers and friends.

With the exception of sexual abuse cases, at least half, if not most, incidents that were described as the most serious occurred in the victim’s home (Table 9). The types of abuse most likely to occur in the home were physical and emotional/physical abuse. For all forms of abuse, the abuser’s home was the second most common location. Of all the abuse types, sexual and sexual/emotional abuse were the most likely to occur outdoors in public places.

The majority of women (68%) were between 20 and 39 years at the time of the most serious incident (Table 10). The type of abuse most commonly occurring in this age category was emotional/physical (80%) and physical (76%) abuse. More women (32.5%) reported sexual abuse as the most serious type of abuse experienced when they were under 20 years of age than other abuse types (Table 10). Forty two per cent of those who identified emotional/sexual abuse as the most serious also fell into this age cohort.

The majority of women (56%) were alone with the abuser when the abuse occurred. Not surprisingly, participants were the most likely to be alone with the abuser when abuse was sexual in nature: 80% who identified sexual abuse as the most serious said they were alone when it happened, compared to 39% of victims of physical abuse and 33% of victims of emotional abuse.

However, a significant proportion (44%) of all women were in company at the time of the worst incident. The presence of others during the incident probably heightens the impact of the abuse. Of even more concern is the fact that those most likely to be present when abuse is committed, are children (Table 11). Of these children, over two-thirds (69%) were exposed to physical abuse and 19% to sexual abuse. Other family members were also likely to have been exposed to, or to have witnessed abuse.

Most of the women (86%) who were willing to discuss the number of abusers, said that one person committed the worst incident of abuse. A few (14%) said they were abused by a group of people. Most of those abusing in a group were known to the women (62%). Of these, partners made up 28%, relatives 21%, and friends/ acquaintances 14%.

Women were asked what they were doing at the time of the incident. In the case of both physical and sexual abuse, women were most likely to say they were simply ‘at home’ when the incident happened (Figure 6). This was more likely among survivors of physical than sexual abuse. Some survivors of sexual abuse said they were attacked when they were ‘going somewhere’ (21.2%).

Women who were victims of physical abuse were as likely to be hurt while arguing with or confronting the abuser as when they were sleeping and resting (Figure 6). This illustrates that women are sometimes subject to violent attacks without warning or the ability to protect themselves. It further assists in debunking the widely held belief that women play a role in domestic violence situations by provoking their abusers to use physical force.

Women who said the worst incident was either physical or sexual in nature were asked whether they had been hurt during the attack, and what weapons, if any, were used by the offender. The vast majority of women were hurt in the attack (74%). Physical strength was most often used against women: 48% said physical strength (as opposed to a weapon) was used (Figure 7).

Blunt household objects were the most common type of weapon used against women. In total, a quarter (26%) of all weapons or objects used against women were household or domestic in nature — which is not surprising, since two-thirds of women selected in the sample had experienced domestic abuse. Weapons such as guns and knives were used in only 10% of cases. In some instances, several types of weapons were used in single incidents of abuse: four women said that at least five objects had been used at one time.

 Was the abuse considered to be a crime?

Most of the women (89%) believed the worst incident of abuse they had experienced was a crime. (Nearly a third (30%) of these participants were describing incidents of emotional abuse.) Most of the remaining 11% who did not believe what was done to them was a crime, had experienced emotional or economic abuse. However, a third of the women (34.5%) who experienced sexual and physical abuse did not think the abuse was a crime. Of the women who easily identified the abuse as a crime, 16% experienced physical abuse, 8.5% emotional/physical abuse, 6% sexual abuse, and 4% emotional/sexual abuse.