tension building phase ends and the active battering phase begins when the verbal abuse and minor battering evolve into an acute battering incident. A release of the tensions built during phase one characterizes the active battering phase, which usually last for a period of two to twenty-four hours. The violence during this phase is unpredictable and inevitable, and statistics indicate that the risk of the batterer murdering his victim is at its greatest. The batterer places his victim in a constant state of fear, and she is unable to control her batterer's violence by utilizing techniques that worked in the tension building phase. The victim, realizing her lack of control, attempts to mitigate the violence by becoming passive. After the active battering phase comes to a close, the cycle of violence enters the calm loving respite phase or "honeymoon phase." During this phase, the batterer apologizes for his abusive behavior and promises that it will never happen again. The behavior exhibited by the batter in the calm loving respite phase closely resembles the behavior he exhibited when the couple first met and fell in love. The calm loving respite phase is the most psychologically victimizing phase because the batterer fools the victim, who is relieved that the abuse has ended, into believing that he has changed. However, inevitably, the batterer begins to verbally abuse his victim and the cycle of abuse begins anew.According to Dr. Walker, Seligman's theory of learned helplessness explains why women stay with their abusers and occurs in a victim after the cycle of violence repeats numerous times. As noted earlier, dogs who were placed in an environment where pain was unavoidable responded by becoming passive. Dr. Walker asserts that, in the domestic abuse ambit, sporadic brutality, perceptions of powerlessness, lack of financial resources and the superior strength of the batterer all combine to instill a feeling of helplessness in the ...
