Research glossary

Emotional abuse is behaviour used to control, shame, intimidate, or break down another person. It may not leave visible bruises, but it can deeply damage someone’s confidence, identity, and sense of safety.

Emotional abuse can include insults, humiliation, constant criticism, threats, manipulation, isolation, or denying the abuse (“You’re crazy, that never happened”). It often exists alongside physical or sexual violence, but it can also occur on its own.

Emotional abuse is the repeated use of controlling and harmful behaviours by a perpetrator to control a victim, most likely a woman. As a result of emotional abuse, a woman lives her life in fear and repeatedly alters her thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and denies her needs, to avoid further abuse. Emotional Abuse includes verbal abuse, stalking and harassing, isolation, threats, intimidation, sexual and financial abuse, and neglect. Emotional abuse is the greatest predictor of physical violence. It can be difficult to explain psychological abuse to other people because there are no physical signs of it and the impact of it can last long after the abuse has ended.

A process through which people gain greater control over decisions and actions affecting their health. It may be
a social, cultural, psychological or political process through which individuals and social groups are able to
express their needs, present their concerns, devise strategies for involvement in decision-making, and achieve
political, social and cultural action to meet those needs (WHO, 1998).

As it relates to social questions of fairness and justice, equality entails a principle of impartiality and sameness of treatment for all people—that is, “of ensuring equal treatment to all people, without consideration of individual and group diversities.

By comparison, equity entails a principle "of ensuring fair, inclusive and respectful treatment of all people, with consideration of individual and group diversities.

The practical differences between equality and equity emerge when social or historical factors cause sameness of treatment to be inconsistent with fairness of treatment—for instance, in cases where legacies of social inequality or systems oppression have placed groups in dominant or subordinate statuses relative to one another.

Under such circumstances, “access to services, supports and opportunities and attaining economic, political and social fairness cannot be achieved by treating individuals in exactly the same way. Equity honours and accommodates the specific needs of individuals/ groups.

A sexual deviancy that involves a pattern of urges and or behavior involving deliberately exposing one’s
genitals for purposes of excitement or sexual arousal (National Center on Sexual Behavior of Youth,
2003).

- Unfair, if not illegal, treatment or use of somebody or something usually for personal gain (Estes and Weiner, 2001).

Misdemeanor committed by a person appealing to a minor, exciting him/her desires and inclinations and thus
exploits his/her weakness/destitution.

specialised unit within SAPS that deals with family violence, child protection and sexual offences cases.

Family violence is abuse within a family system and can involve partners, parents, children, siblings, or extended family members. It is rooted in power and control and may take physical, emotional, financial, or sexual forms.
Family violence can also include forced decisions about pregnancy, financial restriction, or violence by in-laws. In many cases, cultural or community pressure makes it harder to report.

To better understand the signs of family violence, your legal options, and how to seek help safely, see our detailed Domestic Violence guides for detailed information on family violence.

The intentional abuse among individuals where significant others are part of the family and/or are fulfilling the
function of family, in order to gain power and control over the victim. It includes spousal violence, intimate
partner violence, violence between parents and children, siblings, spouses and inlaws. Examples include
preventing a spouse from access to food, water, shelter or clothing, forced abortion, spousal abuse for not
doing what is expected by the husband, such as being late in preparing food, or beating of the wife by her
mother in law.

A family only includes people who are related. A well-functioning family provides members with emotional, social, spiritual and material support that is sustained throughout life, and it also represents the cradle from which the values and norms of a society are transmitted and preserved, and is therefore a key institution for transforming values and norms. A household is a person or group of persons that usually lives and eats together. Furthermore, a household may consist of multiple families

Any form of abuse or neglect that a child or adult experiences from a family member, or from someone with whom they have an intimate relationshipFootnote5, whether current or former.

Family violence is considered to be any form of abuse, mistreatment or neglect that a child or adult experiences from a family member, or from someone with whom they have an intimate relationship.” [1] “Family violence is a gender-based crime as most victims are women and girls. One out of four violent crimes in Canada reported to police involves family violence.

The different terms used for family violence can have slightly different meanings depending on where and how they are used, such as in a courtroom or a hospital. For example:

Domestic violence can sometimes mean family violence and sometimes it means intimate partner violence.
Intimate partner violence refers to physical, sexual, or psychological harm by a current or former partner or spouse and can also be called dating violence between couples who are not married.
The terms violence against women and gender-based violence are also used.
Child abuse is sometimes called child maltreatment or neglect, and elder abuse is sometimes referred to as neglect.

FGM refers to the non-medical cutting or alteration of female genitalia. It is a harmful practice and a violation of human rights.

FGM can cause severe pain, infection, childbirth complications, and long-term emotional trauma. It is illegal in South Africa.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.” [1] “Infections incurred as the result of unhygienic operations frequently result in loss of life, which is considered an acceptable outcome.” [2]

“The World Health Organization has classified FGM into four types:

Type I – Excision of the prepuce, with or without excision of part or all of the clitoris.

Type II – Excision of the clitoris with partial or total excision of the labia minora.

Type III – Excision of part or all of the external genitalia and stitching/narrowing of the vaginal opening (infibulation).

Type IV – Unclassified which includes pricking, piercing or incising of the clitoris and/or labia; stretching of the clitoris and/or labia; cauterization by burning of the clitoris and surrounding tissue.

Female genital mutilation constitutes all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. These practices are sometimes also referred to as “female circumcision” or “female genital cutting

Female infanticide is “the intentional killing of female infants or fetuses because they are female. The practice is shaped by a host of cultural and economic factors, such as norms which lead to a preference of sons over daughters.

“The son preference over daughter has been rooted in various social norms of most patrilineal societies such as inheritance passing on to male offspring, male offspring providing economic support and security in old age and performing death rites.

Femicide is the intentional killing of women and girls because they are women and girls." [1]

There are different forms of femicide including:

Intimate Femicide:The killing of women and girls by current or former partners or family members.
Non-Intimate Femicide:The killing of women and girls by someone without an intimate relationship with them (e.g. serial killings motivated by misogyny).
Murder in the Name of ‘Honor’:The killing of women and girls because their lived experience (e.g. engaging in premarital sex) is judged as a violation of gender and/or family expectations.
Female Infanticide and Gender-Based Sex-Selective Foeticide:The killing of female infants or fetuses because they are female.
Genital Mutilation Related Femicide:The killing of women and girls resulting from complications associated with female genital mutilation.
Dowry-Related Femicide:The killing of a woman or girl by the groom’s family because the dowry (e.g. money, property) provided by her family is judged as inadequate.
Organized Crime Related Femicide:The killing of women and girls associated with gangs, drugs, human trafficking, and/or gun proliferation.

The killing of females because they are females (Russell et al, 2001). It is known to prevail before the advent of
Islam, serving the killing of female newborns, for fear of falling into captivity in the wars that arise between the
tribes, staining the honor of the family and the tribe. This practice is still known in China but done for a different
reason.

Femicide is the killing of a woman because of her gender, and it is the gravest form of gender-based violence.

The term "femicide" was first publicly introduced by Diana Russell in 1976 during the International Tribunal of Crimes Against Women in Brussels. Since its introduction into the lexicon of gender-based violence, our understanding of what constitutes femicide has evolved and shifted. Most analysts use a narrow interpretation that limits the use of the term "femicide" to situations involving intimate partner violence or sexual violence; some organizations, however, use a more expansive definition that encompasses systemic issues, such as the gendered impacts of poverty.