Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive conduct by a partner or intimate family member that includes physical, sexual, and psychological attacks as well as economic coercion.
It is characterized by one partner’s need to control the other by a use of a range of tactics which can include but are not limited to the following behaviors that:
- frighten
- terrorize
- manipulate
- hurt
- humliate
- blame
- often injure
- and sometimes kill
that are directed towards a current or former intimate partner.