Which term best describes the person who uses controlling behavior in intimate partner violence?

• A. Victim
• B. Battered
• C. Batterer
• D. Perpetrator

Answer: (C)

The key idea here is naming the person who initiates abusive behavior in intimate partner violence with language that signals the abusive pattern. The best term is batterer because it identifies the actor as someone who engages in abusive acts against their partner, including controlling behaviors as part of a broader pattern of violence. It distinguishes the person causing harm from the person experiencing harm (victim or battered) and from a neutral label (perpetrator) by specifically tying the behavior to battering.

Victim or battered refer to the person who suffers abuse, not the one who uses it. Perpetrator is accurate in a broad sense but less specific to domestic violence; batterer is the term clinicians and researchers often use to highlight the ongoing, intentional abuse—especially the coercive control that underpins many IPV dynamics.