Get Informed:
Domestic Violence can take different forms, but its goal is always the same: batterers want total power and control over their partners. They do this by regularly abusing them physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Abusers are very much in control: they hit when they want to and stop when they are ready.

• Physical Abuse:
  Slapping, kicking, pushing
  Hitting, choking, punching
  
• Verbal Abuse:
  Constant criticism, name calling, shouting
  making humiliating remarks, mocking
  
• Isolation:
  Not allowing the victim to see friends and relatives
  Monitoring phone calls
  Controlling where the victim goes
  Taking victim's keys, locking the victim out of the home
  
• Harassment/Coercion/Intimidation/Threats:
  Making the victim feel guilty
  Pushing the victim into decisions
  Manipulating victim and other family members
  Always insisting on being right
  Making up impossible "rules" and punishing the victim for breaking them
  Threatening to harm the victim, children, family members and pets
  Using physical size to intimidate
  Keeping weapons and threatening to use them
  Following or stalking
  Humiliating the victim in public
  Constantly checking up on the victim's whereabouts
  Extreme Jealousy and possessiveness
  
• Economic Control:
  Not paying bills, refusing to give money