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Key elements of domestic violence: 1. Conduct perpetrated by adults or adolescents against their intimate partners in current or former dating, married or cohabiting relationships of heterosexuals, gay men, and lesbians.. A pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviors, including physical, sexual, and psychological attacks as well as economic coercion. 3. A pattern of behaviors including a variety of tactics — some physically injurious and some not, some criminal and some not — carried out in multiple, sometimes daily episodes. 4. A combination of physical attacks, terrorist acts, and controlling tactics used by perpetrators that result in fear as well as physical and psychological harm to victims and their children. 5. A pattern of purposeful behavior, directed at achieving compliance from or control over the victim. We have sited this in identification, assessment, and interventions as well as inconsistencies in research. For the purpose of this manual, a behavioral definition of domestic violence is used rather than a legal definition, since a behavioral definition is more comprehensive and more relevant to the health care setting. Domestic violence is herein defined by (1) the relationship context of the violence, (2) the perpetrator’s behaviors, and (3) the function those behaviors serve. Throughout this manual, the terms “domestic violence,” “abuse,” and “battering” will be used interchangeably. A. Relationship Context Domestic violence occurs in a relationship where the perpetrator and victim are known to each other. It occurs in both adult and adolescent intimate relationships. The victim and perpetrator may be dating, cohabiting, married, divorced, or separated. They are heterosexual, gay or lesbian.2 They may have children in common. The relationships may be of short or long duration. The intimate context of the violence is important in understanding the nature of the problem and in developing effective interventions. To an outside observer, domestic violence may look like strangerto-stranger violence (e.g., punching, slapping, kicking, choking). Domestic violence victims experience traumas similar to those of victims of stranger violence (e.g., burns, internal injuries, head injuries, bruises, stab wounds, broken bones, muscle damage, psychological trauma). However, the intimate context of domestic violence shapes the way in which both the perpetrator and the victim relate to and are affected by the violence.