Family Lawyer
In recent years, domestic violence has substantially grown among many Americans. According to a study, one in four women may experience domestic abuse, and one in nine males will as well. Over two-thirds of Americans will be impacted by violence, and the frequency of incidents appears to be rising quickly. In Texas, you have the right to file a lawsuit, and the court will decide whether or not to grant remedies for any mistreatment. In addition to criminal penalties, Texas has laws regarding domestic violence to help victims’ families find safety and resolution.
What is Domestic Violence?
Domestic violence is any abusive action committed by one intimate partner against another as part of a systematic pattern of power and control. It can take the form of physical assault, battery, sexual assault, or other abusive acts. Threats, physical assault, sexual assault, financial exploitation, and psychological and emotional abuse are all included. No matter a person’s gender, race, age, education, religion, class, disability status, sexual orientation, domestic violence can happen to them. It can happen between partners who are married, living together, or dating.
What types of domestic abuse exist?
Domestic abuse presents itself in situations in a wide variety of ways. Physical, sexual, emotional, financial, and physical are the basic types. By law, physical abuse is an intentional act in hopes or causes trauma onto another person. Physical abuse can take many different forms, this includes hitting, slapping, pinching, choking, kicking, and shoving. Physical abuse also includes forcing a partner to drink alcohol or use drugs against their choice. Another form of domestic violence is sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is when any sexual activity performed is forced. sexual abuse is classified under marital rape, molestation, sodomy, coerced nudity, bodily harm, rape, and sexually degrading someone. Next, emotional abuse is another type of domestic violence. Emotional abuse is when a person degrades their victims identity and self-esteem. Emotional abuse includes constant criticism, harassment, yelling, swearing, undermining one’s skills, calling someone names, or harming one’s relationship are a few examples of this, but it’s not limited to those. The next kind of domestic violence is economic abuse. Economic abuse controlling or limiting a partner financially. This includes coercion, fraud, denying a partner their access to their finances. Finally, the last form of domestic violence is psychological abuse. Psychological abuse is when someone threatens a partner with violence, intimidates them, degrading, and instilling fear. Some examples of psychological abuse are creating fear, threatening to harm others or themselves, destroying their property or forcing them to isolate themselves.
What are the 3 types of domestic violence according to law?
In Texas law, the 3 types of domestic violence are domestic assault, aggravated domestic assault and continuous violence. Domestic assault is a physical or verbal assault on a victim who is a close friend or family member of the defendant. Aggravated domestic assault Texas defines this as “aggravated domestic assault” when the defendant caused harm to the victim or was caught using a dangerous weapon either while committing the assault or while threatening the assault. Lastly, continuous violence When a defendant has been involved in two or more domestic assaults, a “continuous violence against the family” charge may be filed.
What are the penalties for Domestic violence?
Domestic violence is split into two categories for punish. It’s divided into misdemeanor and felony penalties. In Texas, Misdemeanors are divided into 3 sub-categories. In order to get a class C misdemeanor, the person in question would have to threaten harm onto a person but didn’t cause any mental distress. When someone gets charged with a class C misdemeanor they will be fined up to 500$. The second category is a class B misdemeanor. In order to be charged with a class B misdemeanor, they would have to threaten harm onto a person and instill fear on them. Lastly, if a person causes harm to a person, they get charged with a class A misdemeanor. If a person gets charged with a class A misdemeanor, they can be sentenced to a year in jail or/both get a fine of 4000$.
Domestic violence can also be carried out into felony penalties. If an assault occurred, it will become a third-degree felony if the person in question has records of previous accounts of domestic violence. They will be sentenced up to 10 years in prison and a 10,000 dollar fine.
To learn more about how an attorney can help with your circumstances, contact an experienced family lawyer. Call our friends at Brandy Austin Law Firm.