Social networking sites and text messaging are increasing features in the abuse of young women, with abusive partners using technology to monitor and control them, according to the organisation Women's Aid.
Publishing its annual statistics for 2010, the charity said there were 13,575 disclosures of abuse and 10,055 calls to its national freephone helpline last year.
Abuse included women being beaten and raped in front of their children, including beatings that induced miscarriage. In some cases, partners used access visits to children to carry out abuse.
Some 588 incidents of sexual abuse were recorded last year, which Women's Aid said was traditionally not disclosed by women experiencing domestic violence. A total of 213 rapes within relationships were reported.
In addition, some women reported financial abuse, with a partner selling their belongings without their consent, or not giving them enough money to buy essentials for themselves and their children.
A total of 1,658 specific incidents of child abuse were reported to the service last year. In a further 2,946 calls it was disclosed that children were living in situations where their mother was experiencing domestic violence.
Director of Women's Aid Margaret Martin said domestic violence could happen to anyone.
"We know that one in five Irish women who have ever been in a relationship experience physical, emotional, financial or sexual abuse," she said.
Last year, the service’s staff and volunteers "heard from thousands of women living with abuse and fear".
"Fear of being choked or strangled, fear of the next beating or cutting remark that is designed to erode their confidence and put them down," Ms Martin said.
The reports from women also included being gagged to silence their screams while they were beaten by a partner, and death threats made against women and their children.
In some cases, the perpetrator would jeer and tell the women not to bother telling anyone because they wouldn’t be believed.
“All too often, these women feel completely isolated and alone, unaware that there is help available. We know that about one third of women never tell anyone about the abuse they suffer. Instead, these women try to survive and protect themselves and their children on their own,” Ms Martin said.
The organisation said disclosures to its helpline continue to show that various forms of technology were being used by abusive partners to monitor and control women, particularly younger women.
“Women have disclosed abuse such as their mobile phone calls and texts being monitored and social media and technology being used to stalk and control them.”
In one case outlined, a woman described finishing a relationship and being bombarded by texts all day and all night, with the former partner alternately making threats and telling her he loved her.
When she changed her number, the man succeeded in obtaining it and began the threats again.
In another case, a young woman’s Facebook account was accessed by a former boyfriend, who put up a naked picture of her. Women’s Aid also said that legal documents, such as extracts from court orders in family cases, had also been put up on Facebook, which completely contravened the in camera rule.
Ms Martin said there was a common misconception that violence and abuse only occurs in older and more established relationships, where women are married or living with, and/or have children with their abusive partner.
“Our experience and national and international research shows that young women are also at risk from violence and abuse from their boyfriends.”
She said that in a national survey on domestic violence, almost 60 per cent of those who had experienced severe abuse in intimate relationships had first experienced it when they were under 25.
“More chilling data from resolved homicide cases show that of the 39 women aged between 18 and 25 years who were killed since 1996, 53 per cent were murdered by a boyfriend or former boyfriend.”
She noted a recent comment by Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions in Britain, which said that young women aged between 16 and 19 in the UK were at the highest risk of sexual assault, stalking and domestic abuse, creating a “risk of a whole new generation of domestic violence”.
Ms Martin also noted that many women continue to literally 'live outside the law' by being ineligible for domestic violence orders. During 2010, 13 per cent of callers disclosed abuse by current non-married partners.
"Many of these women will find themselves unable to access domestic violence orders, for example, if they never lived with their partner, even if they have a child in common."
Women's Aid had hoped this issued would be addressed in the recent Civil Partnership Bill, but it had not been. The organisation said it had received an encouraging response from Taoiseach Enda Kenny in response to a submission on this issue.