01 · Why Recognising Patterns Is Important

Combining Different Types of Abuse Can Increase Harm

Abuse after separation can take different forms: economic, legal, reputational, emotional and physical, and each one can affect a different part of your life, making everyday life harder to manage.^{201, 528}

But the effects of one type of abuse don't always stay in the part of your life it affects. A financial loss can make it harder to keep a legal case going. Interference with your work can reduce your income. Legal costs can leave less for housing and everyday needs.^{201, 500, 528}

This pattern is reflected in the evidence. A review of 48 studies found that when different forms of abuse occur together, their effects can overlap and reach into a woman's fundamental needs, safety, health and wellbeing over time.⁵²⁸ UK statutory guidance recognises this too, describing how Post-Separation Abuse can affect family relationships, work and money together, building up over time.²⁰¹

So a tactic can take more than it first seems to. It can take away the resources, stability, time, support or options you need to deal with what's happening elsewhere in your life. When this happens across several areas at once, the effects compound. Instead of facing one problem at a time, you may be dealing with disruption to several connected parts of your life at once: the parts your safety, independence and stability depend on.^{201, 528}

When a former partner uses different forms of abuse across multiple areas of a woman's life after separation, this can have a devastating impact. This is known as Post-Separation Abuse.^{201, 506, 528}

This is why it matters to look at these behaviours not as isolated incidents, but as parts of a wider pattern and to understand what they're being used to achieve.