As Alcohol Awareness Week 2025 approaches (July 7-13), we need to talk about a serious topic: the connection between alcohol and domestic abuse.
It’s important to understand that alcohol doesn’t cause domestic abuse, but it often plays a significant role, harming not only the person drinking but the entire family.
This year, Alcohol Awareness Week will highlight the complex dynamics of alcohol abuse and, crucially, how victims of domestic abuse can find legal help and support.
The Far-Reaching Impact of Domestic Abuse
Domestic abuse, whether a one-time event or an ongoing pattern, involves one person inflicting harm on someone they’re close to. This harm can take many forms:
- Physical or sexual abuse
- Violence or threats
- Controlling or coercive behaviour
- Economic abuse
- Psychological, emotional, or other forms of abuse
Millions across the UK are affected by domestic abuse, impacting not only the individuals involved but entire families, including children.
Alcohol often plays a significant role: it’s estimated that three out of four spousal abuse incidents involve alcohol, and a staggering 92% of domestic abuse perpetrators report using alcohol on the day of their assault.
Children are particularly vulnerable when alcohol is a factor. In fact, 40% of confirmed child mistreatment cases involve alcohol or drugs.
Growing up with parents who abuse alcohol puts children at a higher risk for their own substance abuse and addiction issues, leading to a host of legal, developmental, social, and health problems down the line.
The Children of Alcoholics Foundation also confirms that 40% of such cases involve alcohol or other drugs.
The Role of Alcohol in Domestic Abuse
Research consistently shows a strong link between alcohol use and domestic abuse incidents, with studies indicating that alcohol is a factor in roughly 25-50% of cases. Here’s how alcohol influences abusive situations:
- Increased Aggression: Alcohol can make people more aggressive and prone to violent outbursts. Many abusive incidents involve someone who’s intoxicated. On the flip side, a lack of alcohol can also trigger irritability and anger, becoming a flashpoint for abuse.
- Impaired Decision-Making: When someone is intoxicated, their impulse control suffers. This can escalate conflicts and severely impact their ability to control themselves, make sound decisions, or resolve disagreements peacefully.
- Victim Vulnerability: If a victim is intoxicated, they may be less able to protect themselves, might seem to “accept” the abuse more easily, or be unable to ask for help.
- Excusing Abusive Behaviour: Abusers sometimes use alcohol as an excuse for their actions, trying to avoid taking responsibility for their harmful behaviour.
The Psychological Toll: How Alcohol Fuels Coercive Control in Domestic Abuse
Domestic abuse isn’t just about physical violence; it also involves deep emotional, psychological, and financial harm. A key part of this is coercive control, and alcohol can be twisted into a weapon in several damaging ways:
- Forcing Drink: Abusers might force a partner or family member to drink, making them more dependent and less able to resist their control.
- Financial Control: When an abuser feels entitled to the family’s money for alcohol, it can lead to intense conflict and financial manipulation.
- Justifying Control: Abusers might use a partner’s drinking habits as an excuse to exert control, perhaps by withholding or preventing alcohol purchases. For someone dependent on alcohol, this can be incredibly distressing and even dangerous, triggering severe withdrawal symptoms.
- Gaslighting: Abusers can manipulate victims into doubting their own sanity, especially if they blame the victim’s drinking for conflicts that are actually the abuser’s fault.
- Coping Mechanism: Sadly, many people experiencing domestic abuse turn to alcohol to cope with the overwhelming stress and the physical and mental health impacts of the abuse.
Beyond these tactics, alcohol use can also make someone more vulnerable to further abuse, especially if it stops them from reaching out for support or worsens their mental health.
If You’re Experiencing Domestic Abuse and Alcohol is Involved
If you’re a victim of domestic abuse, please know you are not alone. Hundreds of thousands of families are affected every year, and help is available. Taking steps to address your drinking, or even cutting back, can be a crucial part of making yourself safer.
If you are in immediate danger, do not hesitate to call the police on 999. For reporting a past incident or seeking advice from your local domestic abuse team, you can call 101.
Access Alcohol and domestic abuse – Alcohol Change UK for solutions of support.
Frequently asked questions
What is a historic abuse claim?
If you are a survivor of abuse in the past, whether that be sexual abuse or physical assault, you may be entitled to claim compensation for the impact it had upon your health.
A claim can be made for the physical impact to your health but also, and often more importantly, it can also be made for any damage it may have caused to your mental health.
Compensation can be claimed for personal injury and also any financial losses you may have suffered as a result of your ill health.
Where might historic abuse occur?
Historic abuse is also known as “non-recent abuse” or “non-accidental abuse” and relates to any physical, sexual, or emotional attack inflicted on a person. These attacks may have taken place in a single incident or repeated over time.
Historic abuse commonly occurs when the attacker holds a position of power over the victim.
Institutional child sexual abuse
In some cases, if the abuse has occurred within an organisational setting, for example, an after-school club or within a religious setting, this might be referred to as Institutional child sexual abuse.
Examples of this include the following (however, this list is not exhaustive):
- School staff attacking pupil.
- Young people abused in children’s homes.
- Football coaches preying on children in their coaching teams.
- Youth group leaders singling out children (often on trips away from home)
- Religious staff attacking children.
- Doctors or hospital staff
What is the CICA?
The CICA is a government-funded authority that aims to compensate blameless victims of an assault or other violent crimes. Formed in 1996 with the sole purpose of providing compensation to blameless victims of violent crime. The value of compensation that it offers for a single injury can vary from £1,000 up to £250,000, with a maximum total payment of £500,000 being available for a CICA claim.
A physical assault is the most common form of claim that is submitted to the CICA. They can often involve unprovoked attacks, sometimes with the suspect using a weapon to inflict the injuries.
Will I be eligible to claim from the CICA after a criminal assault?
If you have been the victim of a physical assault, then you will have satisfied the first CICA eligibility branch of suffering a ‘crime of violence.’
Usually, the assault must have taken place in the past 2 years, although there are exceptions to this rule, and the assault must have been reported to the police as soon as reasonably practicable. For further details on eligibility, please see our in-depth guide on CICA claims.
How long will the CICA take to compete a sexual abuse assault claim?
The CICA advises that, from the date that they receive an application, it aims to take around twelve-eighteen months to make its initial decision on a claim.
This timescale can vary depending on the circumstances of the assault, the severity of injuries, and the complexity of the overall claim.
Further information:
Sexual Abuse/Domestic Abuse Claims.
WHAT TO DO NEXT
Our experienced Solicitors will work on your CICA claim on a ‘no-win, no-fee’ basis, ensuring they are motivated to maximize compensation for your assault case.
Get in touch today for a no-obligation consultation. Choose one of the methods on the right-hand side of this page or call us on 0113 306 9001.
