Women remain in abusive relationships because they are trapped, knowing they are in potentially dangerous situations they cannot quickly or easily extract themselves from.

The cycle of violence they are caught in has three phases:

1. domestic tension builds up,
2. an incident of DV occurs, and
3. retribution is made.

Traumatic bonding between partners is a powerful motivator for the victim to endure the relationship in which time, energy and emotion have been invested. This unhealthy attachment is created by acts of affection combined with intermittent acts of abuse, psychologically the strongest form of reinforcement known.

Victims of DV have been taught helplessness and dependence on their abuser, a phenomenon called the Stockholm Syndrome. They see no escape from their captor without harm or death. Anxiety, fear of abandonment, fear of losing custody of their children, and the reality of their current economic need, all keep this syndrome firmly intact.