Definitions of Domestic Violence - Maine

Defined in Domestic Violence Civil Laws
Citation: Rev. Stat. Tit. 19-A, § 4102

The term 'abuse' means the occurrence of the following acts:

• Attempting to cause or causing bodily injury or offensive physical contact, including sexual assaults
• Attempting to place or placing another in fear of bodily injury through any course of conduct, including, but not limited to, threatening, harassing, or tormenting behavior
• Compelling a person by force, threat of force, or intimidation to engage in conduct that the person has a right to abstain from or to abstain from conduct that the person has a right to engage in
• Restricting, knowingly and substantially, the movements of another person without that person's consent or other lawful authority, or doing any of the following:
  • Removing that person from that person's residence, place of business, or school
  • Moving that person a substantial distance from the vicinity where that person was found
  • Confining that person for a substantial period either in the place where the restriction commences or in a place to which that person has been moved
• Communicating to a person a threat to commit, or to cause to be committed, a crime of violence dangerous to human life against the person to whom the communication is made or another, with conscious disregard of a substantial risk that the natural and probable consequence of the threat, whether or not that consequence in fact occurs, is to place the person to whom the threat is communicated, or the person against whom the threat is made, in reasonable fear that the crime will be committed
• Repeatedly and without reasonable cause following the plaintiff or being at or in the vicinity of the plaintiff's home, school, business, or place of employment
• Engaging in the unauthorized dissemination of certain private images 
• Communicating to a person a threat to commit, or to cause to be committed, a crime of unauthorized dissemination of certain private images 
• Engaging in sex trafficking

'Economic abuse' means causing or attempting to cause a person to be financially dependent by maintaining control over the person's financial resources, including, but not limited to, unauthorized or coerced use of credit or property; withholding access to money or credit cards; forbidding attendance at school or employment; stealing from or defrauding of money or assets; exploiting the person's resources for personal gain of the defendant; or withholding physical resources such as food, clothing, necessary medications, or shelter.

Defined in Child Abuse Reporting and Child Protection Laws

This issue is not addressed in the statutes reviewed.

Defined in Criminal Laws
Citation: Rev. Stat. Tit. 17-A, §§ 207-A; 209-A; 210-B; 210-C; 211-A

A person is guilty of 'domestic violence assault' if the person commits an act of assault and the victim is a family or household member or a dating partner as defined in title 19-A, § 4102.

A person is guilty of 'domestic violence criminal threatening' if the person commits an act of criminal threatening and the victim is a family or household member or a dating partner.

A person is guilty of 'domestic violence terrorizing' if the person commits an act of terrorizing and the victim is a family or household member or a dating partner.

A person is guilty of 'domestic violence stalking' if the person commits an act of stalking and the victim is a family or household member or a dating partner.

A person is guilty of 'domestic violence reckless conduct' if the person commits an act of reckless conduct and the victim is a family or household member or a dating partner.

Persons Included in the Definitions
Citation: Rev. Stat. Tit. 19-A, § 4102

'Family or household members' means the following:

• Present or former spouses or domestic partners 
• Individuals presently or formerly living together as spouses
• Parents of the same child
• Adult household members related by consanguinity or affinity
• Minor children of a household member when the defendant is an adult household member
• Individuals presently or formerly living together
• Individuals who are or were sexual partners

The term 'domestic partners' includes two unmarried adults who are domiciled together under long-term arrangements that evidence a commitment to remain responsible indefinitely for each other's welfare.

'Dating partners' means individuals currently or formerly involved in dating each other, regardless of whether the individuals are or were sexual partners.