Cycle of Violence
The domestic violence cycle is often used to explain unequal and unhealthy relationships. 
It is extremely rare that an abusive will always be abusive it is the calm and romantic phases that a victim holds onto.
Explosion
An incident occurs that could be defined as physical, emotional verbal, or sexual abuse. This is often not where the perpetrator wants to be. This is because the perpetrator will then have to work to get back the relationship. Often it is at this point the victim will leave or call for help.
Buy Back
The perpetrator may apoligise, buy flowers and is usually very nice to the victim. They may seem genuinely remorseful. This phase may alternate between negative and positive buy back and It is here that the victim may be in the most danger. Here the perpetrator may promise to get counselling and even go once or twice.
If attempts at buy back are perceived as unsuccessful, the perpetrator may resort to threats of further violence or perpetrate further acts of violence. The goal here is to return to the status quo of the relationship.
Honeymoon
This stage is relatively calm. The abuser may bring gifts. The victim feels that the abuser has changed. There is usually a strengthening of the relationship and physical abuse usually is not a feature, but may be occurring in small incidences.
Stand Over Stage
This is where the abuser wants to be. The abuser has complete control over the victim. The stage is usually slowly built up through the honeymoon stage. Here the victim does everything possible to keep the peace and hopefully return to the honey moon stage
Sometimes the cycle looks very different. The cycle can be repeated hundreds of time in a short space of time. As time goes on the buy back and honeymoon stages may completely disappear.
I know for myself that I never recognised any buy back because I would apologise first and we would end up straight back in the stand over stage.
