Types of Abuse and Neglect
The Care and Support Statutory Guidance sets out 10 types of abuse and neglect.
Click on the headings below to find out more about the types, signs and indicators of abuse and neglect.
The Care and Support Statutory Guidance sets out 10 types of abuse and neglect.
Click on the headings below to find out more about the types, signs and indicators of abuse and neglect.
This includes being hit, slapped, kicked, pinched, inappropriate restraint, being force-fed or knowingly giving a person too much or not enough medication.
Possible signs and indicators of physical abuse include:
This involves a person being made to take part in sexual activity when they do not, or cannot, agree to this.
It includes rape, indecent exposure, inappropriate looking or touching, or sexual activity where the other person is in a position of power or authority.
Possible signs and indicators of sexual abuse include:
This includes psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse, by someone who is a family member or is, or has been, in a close relationship with the person being abused.
This may be a one-off incident or a pattern of incidents or threats, violence, controlling or coercive behaviour. It also includes so called ‘honour’ based violence, being forced to marry, or undergo genital mutilation.
Coercive or controlling behaviour is a core part of domestic violence. Coercive behaviour can include:
Possible signs and indicators of domestic violence and abuse include:
For help and advice about domestic abuse services in East Sussex, please visit the Safe in East Sussex website.
This includes misusing or stealing a person’s money or belongings, fraud, postal or internet scams tricking people out of money, or pressuring a person into making decisions about their financial affairs, including decisions involving wills and property.
Possible signs and indicators of financial abuse include:
This involves not meeting a person’s physical, medical or emotional needs, either deliberately, or by failing to understand these. It includes ignoring a person’s needs, or not providing the person with essential needs, such as medication, food, water, shelter and warmth.
Possible signs and indicators of neglect include:
This involves a person being unable, or unwilling, to care for their own essential needs, including their health or surroundings (for example, their home is very unclean, refusal of necessary support, obsessive hoarding).
Possible signs and indicators of self-neglect include:
This includes being shouted at, ridiculed or bullied, threatened, humiliated, blamed or controlled by intimidation or fear.
It includes harassment, verbal abuse, online or mobile phone bullying and isolation.
Possible signs and indicators of neglect include:
This includes forms of harassment, ill-treatment, threats or insults because of a person’s race, age, culture, gender, gender identity, religion, sexuality, physical or learning disability, or mental-health needs.
Possible signs and indicators of discriminatory abuse include:
Discriminatory abuse can also be called ‘hate crime’. Hate crime is the targeting of individuals, groups and communities because of who they are. It is any incident which is a criminal offence and which is thought, by you or someone else, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice based on race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, gender, gender identity, disability, age, sexual orientation or any other actual or seeming difference.
This can include:
It is important to report all hate incidents, even if you think nothing can be done as it helps the police and other agencies identify areas of concern, patterns of behaviour and what is happening in our communities. Hate crimes are not only crimes against the targeted victim, but also against a particular group as a whole.
This includes human trafficking, slavery, domestic servitude, a person being forced to work for little or no pay (including in the sex trade), being held against their will, tortured, abused or treated badly by others.
Possible signs and indicators of modern slavery include:
The Home Office have produced a range of modern slavery guidance documents.
More information about modern slavery and how to combat it is available on the following webpages / websites:
This includes neglect and providing poor care in a care setting such as a hospital or care home, or in a person’s own home. This may be a one-off incident, repeated incidents or on-going ill-treatment.
It could be due to neglect or poor care because of the arrangements, processes and practices in an organisation.
Possible signs and indicators of organisational abuse include: