Heres everything to know about financial abuse

Heres everything to know about financial abuseHeres everything to know about financial abuseYouve heard of physical abuse. Youve heard of emotional abuse. Youve heard of sexual abuse. But have you heard of financial abuse? Probably not. Its just one mora way that abusers wield their power to disenfranchise and harm their victims. Financial abuse is when money is used as a weapon. That can mean withholding money, stealing money, restricting the use of money, accruing debt in a lebenspartners name without their knowledge, or sabotaging a partners career.These behaviors make a victim dependent upon their abuser and make it difficult for them to leave the relationship. Victims are often forced to choose between staying in an abusive relationship and poverty or even homelessness. Because of this, financial abuse is mora common and more insidious than you might think.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neurosc ience, and moreMany women have experienced domestic abuseAccording to theGuttmacher Institute, nearly half of all women in the United States have experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner, a quarter of women have experienced physical violence, and almost 10 percent have been raped by an intimate partner. To make matters worse, one-third of women who are murdered in the United States are killed by a current or former male partner. These are sobering numbers. They show that a huge swath of our population has experienced domestic violence of some kind, and domestic violence often escalates to murder. It touches more of us than we might realize.Most abuse victims have experienced financial abuseSo now we know that up to 50 percent of all women in the United States experience domestic abuse of some kind. But what does that have to do with financial abuse? Well, the two are directly and deeply linked. Financial abuse actually occurs in up to99 percentof all abusive relat ionships. That means that in almost all abusive relationships, money is being used as a weapon to make a victim financially reliant on their partner, or financially unable to leave the relationship.Its not about the moneyJust like sexual abuse isnt about sex, financial abuse isnt actually about money. Its about control. Money is essential to getting through our everyday lives. If someone else is controlling that resource, then we would have to be completely dependent on them. If you were an abuse victim, but your abuser controlled all of your finances, you probably wouldnt be able to afford to leave them. This sort of abuse maintains control over the victim, especially if there are children involved.It can ruin careersOne of the ways that abusers maintain control over their victims is by sabotaging their jobs and careers. According to theNational Coalition Against Domestic Violence(NCADV), between 21 and 60 percent of victims of intimate partner violence lose their jobs due to reaso ns stemming from the abuse. Abusers do this by preventing their victim from going to work, interfering with their work by making frequent phone calls or showing up at their office, or demanding that they quit. According to the CDC, victims of intimate partner violence lose a total of 8 million days of paid work each year, the equivalent of 32,000 jobs.This abuse tactic prevents a victim from being able to earn their own money and have their own sense of independence. It isolates the victim and makes them even more dependent upon their abuser.It can ruin futuresOne of the common tactics of financial abuse is known as coerced debt. This can range from opening accounts in the victims name to forcing the victim to sign financial documents. This behavior can trap a victim in crushing debt and destroy their credit history. If youve read about why yourcredit scoreandcredit reportmatter, you know that they arent just numbers. They determine your ability to get a loan for things like buying a home, buying a car, going back to school, etc. They also can determine whether or not you are approved for an apartment or hired for a job. All of these things not only can impact whether someone can successfully leave an abusive partner, but they can make or break a victims future.To hear more personal stories about this sort of destruction, check out thisBuzzfeedfeature. It took years for this one woman to clean up her credit report after her husband opened credit cards in her name and didnt pay them off.It can be hard to spotAs with a lot of abuse, financial abuse is not necessarily overt from the beginning. It can seem like your partner is just looking out for you. For example, when my husband and I first moved in together, I would ask him how much money he spent on things because I wanted to make sure we were sticking to our household budget. This was a way for me to make sure we were on the saatkorn page financially. However, if I started interrogating him about every single purchase he made or limited his access to his or our combined resources, I would be committing financial abuse. Another example could be your partner checking up on you during the day to see how youre doing. An abusive behavior would be if they contact you so much that they make it difficult or impossible to do your job, putting your job at risk. Its important to recognize the signs if this behavior begins to escalate and turn into abuse.To learn more about financial abuse, visitGuttmacher InstituteandNCADV. To learn how to support victims of financial abuse, visit thePurple Purse.This article originally appeared on Maggie Germano.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people