Family relationships, and all intimate relationships, must be founded on respect and love. Domestic violence is never acceptable, because it violates people’s rights, destroys their dignity and puts their physical integrity, and even their life, at risk.
Parents are responsible for creating a nurturing, safe and violence-free environment. Any behaviour that seeks to dominate another person, or that forces their will or disrespects their rights, is violence, even if no physical aggression is involved.
Within a couple, domestic violence is defined as:
- making threats or blackmailing
- using children or other family members as a form of pressure
- insulting, humiliating or demeaning the other person, whether in front of someone else or alone
- preventing the other person’s contact with family or friends
- preventing the other person from leaving the house alone
- controlling the other person’s movements or physically following them
- monitoring the other person’s telephone calls or text messages
- preventing the other person from having access to money or property that belongs to them
- forcing the other person to perform sexual acts against their will.
Sometimes children themselves are direct victims of the behaviours mentioned above. They can also be affected as indirect victims who witness the violence, because they see its effects on the victim, and may begin to live with fear, anxiety and feelings of guilt.
Domestic violence is a crime punishable under Portuguese law, and victims have the right to be protected.