«Money is not the only thing economic violence is made of»: a scoping review of economic violence in Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Economic violence is recognised as a form of intimate partner violence (IPV). The scientific interest stems from
an attempt to understand whether and how IPV can affect the economic independence and psychosocial wellbeing
of victims by also making it more difficult for the person to leave an abusive relationship.
The aim of this review is to summarise the scientific evidence on economic violence as a specific form of IPV,
and to focus on the assessment tools that could be used to explore economic violence, its prevalence and its
impact on the psychosocial well-being of victims and the variables that could mitigate its effects.
The literature search was conducted according to the «Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and
Meta-analysis Protocols extension for Scoping Review» in the following bibliographic databases: EBSCOhost
(PsycArticle, PsycInfo, Gender Studies), PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and ProQuest (Psychology Database).
The Boolean string was organised as follows: (IPV OR “Intimate Partner Violence” OR “Domestic Violence”
OR “Domestic Abuse” OR “Intimate Partner Abuse”) AND (“Economic violence” OR “Economic Abuse” OR
“Financial Abuse” OR “Economic Control” OR “Economic Exploitation” OR “Coerced Debt” OR “Employment
sabotage”) NOT (“Elder abuse”).
In accordance with the eligibility criteria, 23 studies were included in this review.
The studies indicate that there is a significant association between economic violence as a specific form of
IPV and the psychosocial well-being of victims. Hence, economic violence is recognised as a distinct form of
violence that can have negative consequences on the lives of those who suffer it.