In a parent/child abusive relationship, guilt over abuse may be expressed as special privileges or gifts for the child victim.

Following the guilt and making up stage comes a "honeymoon" or latency period during which things are good for a while between the partners.

The abuser will swear, "It will never happen again" and may shower the victim with gifts and demands that the victim forgive him or her.

There may be so-called "makeup sex" which can be quite pleasurable and provide the victim with a sense that he or she is valued, and really loved.

Other abused people stay because they believe that is the proper thing to do, given their religious or cultural background.

After a video was released showing Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his then-fiancée, now-wife Janay Palmer so hard that he knocked her unconscious, victims of domestic abuse took to Twitter to explain why Palmer still decided to become Mrs. Some on Twitter shared their own experiences with the hashtag #Why IStayed.

The second question, "Why Do Adults Stay In Abusive Relationships? Partners in abusive relationships have varying reasons for remaining in them.

A first layer of the reasons for staying in an abusive relationship is practical, even if they are not always rational.

There is no clear beginning to the cycle of abuse, but for purposes of describing it, we can start at an arbitrary stage along its progression.

Something event occurs, whether real or only imagined by the abuser, that generates feelings of anger or even rage.