Domestic violence between intimate partners includes physical, emotional, and sexual abuse which is used as a means of controlling the partner and ultimately holding all the power in the relationship. 

The  physical component of abuse takes the form of battering incidents.  How frequent and severe these incidents are varies from relationship to relationship. 

The emotional component of abuse includes verbal attacks, assaults and humiliation; badgering and intimidation; control tactics such as refusal to discuss certain issues and withholding love and affection; as well as specifically articulated threats of further violence against her person, her loved ones, or her property.  A distinction must be made between a batterer who must be left to obtain safety for one's self and one's family; and intimate communication between two people that is well meaning, but escalates angrily out of control.  Professionally trained family therapists are available to all religious communities for family life education and enrichment programs in this area. 

The sexual component of abuse involves forcing her to engage in sexual acts against her will.  Each form of abuse itself makes a relationship an abusive one, but generally all these components are present in an abusive relationship.