What Is Domestic Violence? Identifying the Warning Signs and Coercive Control - Deepika & Ranjodh Singh

Every couple argues. What almost nobody tells you is where that argument is supposed to stop — and what it means when it doesn’t. On a recent episode of Radio Haanji 1674 AM, hosts Deepika and Ranjodh Singh sat with that exact discomfort, walking through the difference between a domestic dispute and domestic violence in a way that neither excused genuine abuse nor treated every raised voice as a crime. For Melbourne’s Punjabi and broader Indian community, this isn’t an abstract debate. Migrant couples face a specific mix of pressures — new country, new rules, no nearby family, financial strain — that can turn ordinary friction into something more serious, and researchers at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare have flagged temporary visa status, language barriers and social isolation as factors that specifically heighten risk for culturally and linguistically diverse households (AIHW, 2024). At the same time, the hosts raised a less comfortable point: the word ”domestic violence” itself is sometimes weaponised in arguments, and that misuse does real damage too.