Intimate partner violence (IPV) is abuse or aggression that occurs in a romantic relationship, whether between current or former spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, or dating partners. Globally, 316 million women experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner in the past year alone. IPV is not limited to physical assault. It spans a range of behaviors designed to control, intimidate, or harm a partner, and its effects ripple through every area of a person’s health and daily life.
The Four Types of IPV
The CDC identifies four categories of intimate partner violence, and most abusive relationships involve more than one.
Physical violence is when a person hurts or tries to hurt a partner using physical force. This includes hitting, slapping, choking, pushing, and using weapons, but it also covers less obvious acts like restraining someone or throwing objects.
Sexual violence is forcing or attempting to force a partner to take part in a sex act, sexual touching, or a non-physical sexual event like sexting when the partner does not or cannot consent. This can happen within a marriage or long-term relationship just as it can in any other context.
Stalking is a pattern of repeated, unwanted attention and contact that causes fear or concern for one’s safety. When it comes from a partner or ex-partner, it often intensifies after a breakup or separation.
Psychological aggression is the use of verbal and non-verbal communication meant to harm a partner mentally or emotionally, or to exert control. This includes name-calling, humiliation, constant criticism, gaslighting, isolation from friends and family, and threats.
Economic Abuse and Reproductive Coercion
Two forms of IPV that often go unrecognized deserve their own attention because they can trap someone in a relationship even when no physical violence is occurring.
Economic abuse involves controlling or undermining a partner’s financial independence. Specific behaviors include withholding access to money, taking a partner’s paycheck or property, forcing someone to sign financial documents, misusing joint bank accounts, and sabotaging a partner’s employment by making it difficult for them to get to work or keep a job. The goal is to create financial dependence so leaving the relationship feels impossible.
Reproductive coercion targets a partner’s ability to make decisions about pregnancy and contraception. The most common forms include sabotaging birth control (hiding pills, poking holes in condoms, removing IUDs), pressuring a partner to become pregnant against their will, and using threats or violence to control whether a pregnancy is continued or terminated. Sexual coercion, a related behavior, includes repeatedly pressuring a partner to have sex, refusing to use condoms, and intentionally exposing a partner to sexually transmitted infections.
Technology-Facilitated Abuse
Digital tools have expanded the ways abusers monitor and control partners. Common tactics include tracking a partner’s location through their phone, reading their messages, sharing intimate images without consent, and using social media to humiliate or threaten them. Abusers may also control a partner’s access to bank accounts, email, or immigration-related accounts online. In some cases, abusers create or distribute synthetically altered sexual images or call law enforcement to a partner’s home under false pretenses, a tactic known as swatting.
These behaviors can continue or even escalate after a relationship ends, making technology-facilitated abuse a particular concern during separation.
The Cycle of Violence
IPV rarely happens as isolated, random incidents. Many people in abusive relationships describe a repeating three-phase pattern.
The first phase is tension-building. The abuser becomes increasingly argumentative, critical, and angry. Minor conflicts arise more frequently. The person being abused often describes this phase as “walking on eggshells,” sensing that something bad is about to happen.
The second phase is the explosion. Built-up tension erupts into a major act of violence, whether physical assault, sexual attack, or severe verbal abuse. This is when injuries are most likely to occur.
The third phase is sometimes called the “honeymoon” period. The abuser expresses remorse, makes promises to change, and may shower the partner with affection or gifts. The relationship temporarily feels like it did in the beginning. But the calm does not last. Tension begins building again, and the cycle repeats. Over time, the honeymoon phase often shortens while the violence escalates.
How IPV Affects Physical and Mental Health
The health consequences of IPV extend far beyond the injuries caused by a single incident. Long-term exposure to the stress of an abusive relationship triggers lasting changes in the body’s stress response, immune function, and hormonal systems. These changes are linked to a wide range of chronic conditions: cardiovascular disease, asthma, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders like irritable bowel syndrome, and chronic pain conditions including fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Mental health effects are equally significant. Depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder are common among survivors, as are sleep disturbances and substance use. The connection between IPV and suicide attempts is well documented. Many of these health effects persist long after the abuse has ended, which is why IPV is considered a serious public health issue, not just a relationship problem.
How Children Are Affected
Children living in homes where IPV occurs are deeply affected, even when they are not directly targeted. Their reactions vary by age. Infants and toddlers may show disrupted sleep and eating, intense separation anxiety, inconsolable crying, and regression in developmental milestones they had already reached. School-age children often struggle with concentration, task completion, and peer relationships. They may become aggressive, withdrawn, or start avoiding school. Teenagers are at higher risk for antisocial behavior, substance abuse, running away, depression, and entering abusive dating relationships themselves.
Across all age groups, exposure to IPV teaches children harmful lessons about relationships: that violence is an acceptable way to handle stress, that control is a normal part of intimacy. These patterns can shape how they relate to others well into adulthood. Research has also linked IPV exposure to lower scores on verbal, motor, and social skill assessments, along with poorer school performance overall.
Who Is at Risk
IPV occurs across every demographic, but certain factors increase risk at the individual, relationship, and community levels.
At the individual level, risk factors for perpetrating IPV include heavy alcohol and drug use, a history of aggressive behavior in youth, antisocial personality traits, poor impulse control, a desire for power and control in relationships, hostility toward women, attitudes that justify violence, and a childhood history of physical or emotional abuse. Economic stress and social isolation also play a role.
Within relationships, warning signs include intense jealousy and possessiveness, one partner dominating all decision-making, and a family history of witnessing violence between parents. At the community level, high rates of poverty, unemployment, easy access to drugs and alcohol, and a culture of looking the other way when violence occurs all contribute to higher rates of IPV.
Protective factors work in the opposite direction. Strong social connections, economic stability, access to education, and communities where neighbors look out for one another all reduce the likelihood of IPV.
Global Prevalence
A 2023 WHO report found that roughly 11% of women aged 15 and older worldwide experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner in the preceding 12 months. Among adolescent girls aged 15 to 19, that figure rises to 16%. Rates vary dramatically by region. In parts of Oceania, past-year prevalence among ever-partnered women reaches 38%. In Central and Southern Asia, the rate is around 18 to 19%. Sub-Saharan Africa and Northern Africa fall between 16 and 17%. Europe and North America have the lowest regional rate at about 5%, though that still represents millions of people.
These numbers reflect only physical and sexual violence reported through surveys. When psychological aggression, stalking, economic abuse, and technology-facilitated abuse are included, the true scope is considerably larger. Men also experience IPV, though at lower rates, and IPV occurs in same-sex relationships at comparable or higher rates than in heterosexual ones.
How IPV Is Identified in Healthcare
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that clinicians screen all women of reproductive age for IPV, including during and after pregnancy. Screening typically involves a brief questionnaire asking about experiences of being hurt, insulted, threatened, or controlled by a partner. These tools are designed to be quick and private, often completed on paper or a tablet in the exam room before a provider enters.
If you are screened and the results suggest IPV, the next step is a conversation about safety and available support, not judgment. Effective interventions connect people with ongoing support services, safety planning, counseling, and community resources. Screening matters because many people experiencing IPV do not bring it up on their own, whether due to shame, fear, or not recognizing certain behaviors as abuse.