Domestic abuse, also called domestic violence or intimate partner violence can be defined as a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. Abuse is physical, sexual, emotional, economic or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that frighten, intimidate, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, injure, or wound someone.

"10 million people per year are physically abused by an intimate partner... and 20 percent of women in the United States have been raped." Source: National Coalition to End Domestic Violence.