Have you been the victim of domestic violence?
Do you know all the behaviors that are defined as domestic violence under Arizona law? It might surprise you to know that the definition is broader than most people think. You may have suffered and suffered significantly but maybe you were never able to give it a name. Or maybe someone told you that what happened to you did not qualify as domestic violence. That what you experienced was not serious enough, not physical enough, not recent enough to matter.
We are here to help you understand what Arizona law actually says. We hope this helps.
First: You Do Not Have to Have Been Hit by the Abuser
The most common misconception about domestic violence is that it requires physical assault. It does not. Arizona law defines domestic violence as a long list of specific criminal offenses and many of them have nothing to do with physical contact. Threats. Fear. Harassment. Stalking. Controlling behavior. Surveillance. Financial domination. Using the court system as a weapon. All of these can be domestic violence under Arizona law when they occur in a qualifying relationship such as a husband wife or boyfriend girlfriend.
And as of June 22, 2026, the definition expanded further to protect children when domestic violence is in their family. The Alec and Lydia Act added “coercive control” to the legal definition of domestic violence for family court purposes. Arizona now recognizes that a pattern of behavior designed to dominate, control, isolate, and frighten a person is domestic violence even when there is no physical contact.
We hope this helps. If you are the victim of domestic violence, you are not alone and you don’t have to live this way.
Domestic Violence Includes:
Physical violence is what most people picture when they hear domestic violence. But even here the definition is broader than many victims realize.
Assault A.R.S. § 13-1203
Assault in Arizona includes intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causing any physical injury to another person. Any physical injury. Not serious injury. Not injury requiring medical treatment or visible bruising. Any injury. It also includes intentionally placing another person in reasonable apprehension of imminent physical injury meaning if the abuser acts in a way that makes you reasonably believe you are about to be physically harmed, that is assault under Arizona law even if they never touch you. For instance, if he raises his hand to make you think he might hit you.
Aggravated Assault A.R.S. § 13-1204
Aggravated assault is assault that causes serious physical injury, involves a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, or involves strangulation. Strangulation is specifically recognized because research consistently shows it is one of the most significant predictors of future lethal violence in domestic violence cases. If you have been strangled even once, even briefly that is aggravated assault and it is a serious danger indicator that courts now must address under the Alec and Lydia Act. Strangulation is a pre cursor to homicide.
Sexual Assault A.R.S. § 13-1406
Sexual assault is sexual contact without consent. This includes marital rape. Marriage is not consent. If you have been forced into sexual contact by a spouse or partner, that is domestic violence under Arizona law.
Criminal Damage A.R.S. § 13-1602
Destroying or damaging property is domestic violence when it occurs in a qualifying relationship. Punching walls. Breaking dishes. Smashing your phone. Destroying your belongings. These acts are not anger management problems. They are criminal offenses and they are domestic violence. They are designed to send a message to you about power and what could happen to you next.
Child Abuse A.R.S. § 13-3623
Physical abuse or neglect of a child or vulnerable adult is domestic violence.
Endangerment A.R.S. § 13-1201
Recklessly endangering another person with a substantial risk of imminent death or physical injury is domestic violence. Driving recklessly with you in the car. Creating dangerous conditions in the home. Exposing you or your children to serious physical risk through reckless conduct.
Threats and Fear Are Domestic Violence
This is where Arizona law is most misunderstood and where the most victims have been incorrectly told their experience does not qualify as dv. You do not have to be hurt. You do not have to wait until the violence is physical. The law recognizes that fear itself if it is reasonable fear, the kind a reasonable person in your situation would believe is enough.
Threatening or Intimidating A.R.S. § 13-1202
Threatening to cause physical injury to another person, or threatening to cause serious damage to their property, or making someone reasonably fear that harm is coming to them or to someone they care about is threatening or intimidating under Arizona law. The threat does not have to be carried out. The threat itself is the crime. If a reasonable person in your position would believe they could be hurt, that is enough.
Stalking A.R.S. § 13-2923
A course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for their safety or the safety of a member of their immediate family. Following you. Showing up uninvited at your home, your workplace, your children’s school. Monitoring your movements. Repeated unwanted contact. Tracing your car. A pattern of behavior not necessarily a single dramatic incident that makes a reasonable person afraid.
Harassment A.R.S. § 13-2921
A series of acts over any period of time directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to be seriously alarmed or annoyed. This includes contact in person, by phone, by text, by email, by social media. Harassment is about the pattern. Repeated unwanted contact designed to wear you down, frighten you, or make you feel like you cannot escape.
Electronic Communication to Terrify, Intimidate, Threaten or Harass A.R.S. § 13-2916
Text messages, voicemails, emails, social media messages designed to terrify, intimidate, threaten, or harass you are domestic violence. The medium does not matter. If the communication is designed to frighten or control you it qualifies.
Interference with Telephone Use A.R.S. § 13-2915(A)(3)
Preventing or interfering with your use of a telephone in an emergency is domestic violence. Taking your phone. Blocking you from calling for help. Destroying the phone so you cannot call 911. If you have been prevented from calling for help, that act itself is a crime.
Unlawful Imprisonment A.R.S. § 13-1303
Knowingly restraining another person, preventing them from leaving. Locking you in. Blocking the door with their body. Preventing you from going to work, leaving the house, or seeking help. Confinement against your will is domestic violence.
Kidnapping A.R.S. § 13-1304
Knowingly restraining another person with the intent to hold them for ransom, to use them as a hostage, to inflict physical injury, or to terrorize them. More extreme than unlawful imprisonment and carries more serious criminal consequences.
Custodial Interference A.R.S. § 13-1302
Taking a child in violation of a court order, or removing a child from Arizona without permission. When a parent uses the children as leverage to control the other parent this can qualify as domestic violence. The children are not tools. Using them as weapons is a crime.
Unlawful Distribution of Images A.R.S. § 13-1425
Sharing or threatening to share intimate images without your consent. Sometimes called revenge pornography. The threat to share them is enough, the images do not have to actually be distributed for this to be domestic violence.
Coercive Control is Now Part of Definition of Domestic Violence in Arizona as of June 22, 2026 in Family Court
Many people who lived through what is now called coercive control were told for years that their experience did not qualify as domestic violence because it was not physical. If the abuser never left a mark, if there was no police report, if the control was financial or emotional or psychological rather than physical, they were told: that is not domestic violence.
As of June 22, 2026, Arizona law says otherwise.
The Alec and Lydia Act defines coercive control as a pattern of violent, threatening, coercive or emotionally abusive conduct by one parent against the other, without consent or justification. It is now domestic violence for family court purposes. The Act lists fifteen forms it can take.
Sexual or Other Physical Assault
Sexual or other physical assault is coercive control. It is also a criminal offense in its own right, and the two definitions can both apply to the same conduct.
Threats to Harm You, Yourself or a Pet
Threatening to kill or injure a person, including oneself, or a household pet. "If you leave me I will kill myself" is coercive control under Arizona law. So is a threat against an animal your family loves. Pets are used as leverage because abusers know what they mean to you.
Displaying or Cleaning a Weapon
Displaying, accessing, assembling or cleaning a firearm or other dangerous weapon in the other parent's presence, where the circumstances imply that the weapon's use is being threatened in violation of state or federal law. The weapon does not have to be pointed at you. Cleaning a gun at the kitchen table while you watch is enough if the circumstances make the threat clear. The message is clear even when no words are spoken.
Confinement and Restriction
Confinement, or other restraining words or actions used to restrict your freedom of movement or lawful activity. Locking you in. Blocking the doorway. Preventing you from going to work, leaving the house, or seeking help.
Isolation from Friends and Family
Cutting you off from the people who love you. Making it difficult or impossible to see friends. Driving wedges between you and your family. Screening your calls. Monitoring your relationships. Isolation is one of the earliest and most reliable warning signs of an abusive relationship. It leaves you without a support system and more dependent on the abuser. If you look back and see that your world got smaller and smaller the longer you were in this relationship, that is not a coincidence.
Financial Monitoring and Control
Monitoring or regulating financial activity, economic resources or access to services. Controlling the bank accounts. Requiring permission to spend money. Giving you an allowance and demanding receipts. Sabotaging your employment. Denying you access to money that is legally yours. Financial control is one of the most common forms of coercive control and one of the hardest to leave because it removes the practical means to do so.
Stalking or Harassment
Stalking or harassment in any form. Following you. Showing up uninvited at your home, your workplace, your children's school. Repeated unwanted contact. A pattern of behavior that makes a reasonable person afraid.
Demeaning and Degrading Conduct
Demeaning, degrading or humiliating words or actions. Constant criticism. Contempt. Humiliation in private and in public. Being told repeatedly that you are stupid, worthless, a bad mother, ugly, lucky anyone would want you. The slow erosion of a person's sense of self-worth is abuse even when it leaves no visible mark.
Threatening to Expose Sensitive Information
Threatening to publish sensitive information, including sexually explicit material, of you or a member of your family. The threat itself is coercive control. The images do not have to be shared.
Threatening to Report to Law Enforcement
Threatening to make reports to law enforcement. These threats are used deliberately against people who have reason to fear those agencies.
Using the Court System as a Weapon
Threatening, initiating or using civil litigation, including family court proceedings and orders of protection, either to force you to defend against a claim that is false or frivolous, or to regulate or restrict your lawful or constitutionally protected activity. Filing motion after motion not to resolve a legitimate legal dispute but to exhaust you financially, consume your time, damage your reputation, and punish you for leaving. Arizona law now specifically names this as domestic violence. If your former partner is using the court system to control and punish you, that behavior has a legal name.
Damaging Property
Damaging property owned or lawfully possessed by you or a member of your family. Breaking things. Destroying belongings. Damaging your vehicle. This is a message about power and the willingness to use it.
Jeopardizing Immigration Status
By act or conscious omission, jeopardizing the immigration status of you or a member of your family. Contacting immigration authorities. Withholding documents required for immigration. Interfering with an active application or process. This is among the most powerful control mechanisms used against victims who are not citizens.
Forcing Criminal Activity
Forcing you to commit a crime against your stated wishes. Coercing participation in illegal activity as a form of control or as leverage over you.
Surveillance and Tracking Technology
Using surveillance or tracking technology to facilitate or aggravate any of the behaviors above. GPS trackers on your car. Spyware installed on your phone or computer. Hidden cameras in the home. Monitoring your emails, your text messages, your social media. Technology has made surveillance easier and more invasive than at any point in history, and Arizona law now specifically names it.
The Relationship Status for Domestic Violence
Not every threatening or harmful act qualifies as domestic violence under Arizona law. To qualify the act must be committed by someone in a qualifying relationship with you. Those relationships are broad:
Current or former spouses. People who currently live or have lived together in the same household. People who have a child in common. A person who is pregnant by the other party. Close family members such as parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, siblings, and specified step-relatives and in-laws. A person who is currently or was previously in a romantic or sexual relationship with you.
That last category matters. You do not have to have been married. You do not have to have lived together. A dating relationship even one that ended can qualify. The court looks at the type of relationship, how long it lasted, how frequently you interacted, and if it ended, how long ago.
The relationship requirement is broader than most people assume. An ex-boyfriend. A former roommate you were also in a relationship with. A co-parent you were never married to. These relationships are covered.
What This Means in Your Divorce and for Your Children
If domestic violence has been part of your relationship and you are going through a divorce or a parenting dispute in Arizona, the legal landscape changed significantly to protect children on June 22, 2026.
The Alec and Lydia Act created a mandatory presumption in Arizona family court: when a court determines that a parent has committed domestic violence, an award of legal decision-making or parenting time to that parent is presumed contrary to the child's best interests. The abuser must overcome that presumption before the court can award any access at all, and the standard depends on what he or she is asking for. Sole or joint legal decision-making and unsupervised parenting time each take clear and convincing evidence. Supervised parenting time takes a preponderance of the evidence.
Courts must now make specific written findings when domestic violence is alleged. The child's preference for the abusive parent is irrelevant to the mandatory presumption. Coercive control, the behaviors described in this article, is part of the domestic violence definition in Family Court.
If You Are Reading This and Recognizing Your Own Life
You do not have to have it figured out before you call. You do not need a police report. You do not need photos or a perfect timeline or certainty about whether what happened to you legally qualifies. You just need your story.
Tali handles every new client consultation personally. She and her colleagues are trauma informed attorneys. She will listen. She will help you understand what the law means for you and your children.
You are not alone. And you do not have to navigate this by yourself. We are here to help.
