Cassie’s story reflects what research shows about partner violence

Testimony in the Diddy trial maps onto findings about intimate partner violence, especially as experienced by women of color.

NADIA E. BROWN

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial has exposed scandalous details about his relationships and personal dealings with people in the entertainment industry. At the heart of the prosecution’s case is the claim that Diddy controlled women through the use of intimidation, drugs, and violence.

Outside of the salacious accounts of choreographed “freak-offs” – sex parties with celebrities, male sex workers, and copious drugs held in hotel rooms – Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura recounted forms of physical and psychological abuse. What would make a former model and burgeoning singer stay in the (on-again/off again) relationship for over a decade?

Violence against women is a term covering abuses directed at women and girls over a lifespan including physical, sexual, and psychological harm or suffering of women. The definition also includes threats, coercion, and acts of deprivation of liberty. The concept is rooted in the inequality between women and men, which often occurs within intimate partner relationships.

In her own words

Cassie testified on May 14, 2025 that she engaged in freak-offs to make her boyfriend “happy.” In fact, Cassie testified that Diddy had been violent with her before the first time that she performed in a freak-off. Throughout several days of testimony, Cassie reiterated that she endured sexual, physical, emotional, and psychological abuse. She testified that she stayed in a relationship that made her uncomfortable although she desperately wanted to be Diddy’s only girlfriend.

Cassie stated through sobs, “When you really care about somebody and love them, you don’t want to disappoint them.” She explained that she participated in the freak-offs although they made her uncomfortable because she “didn’t want anything bad to happen” – she did not want Diddy to become violent or find someone new. In her May 15, 2025 testimony, she stated that Diddy raped her and engaged in acts of physical violence. She said she felt coerced to engage in freak-offs. The prosecution team also introduced video footage from 2016 of Diddy and Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel – footage the prosecution argued helps show Combs’ “persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals.”

Cassie’s testimony and the video evidence raise the question: why do women – in particular, women of color – stay in abusive relationships? Scholarship provides insights into the culture of violence that women of color face, why they stay in unhealthy relationships, and impactful interventions to end the cycle of abuse.

The research on sexual violence wIthin relationships

Research suggests that the most pervasive form of gender violence is abuse of women by intimate male partners. To be clear, women can be perpetrators of intimate partner violence and violence occurs in same-sex relationships. But the data show the majority of partner abuse is perpetrated by men against female partners. Women who report experiencing intimate partner violence might suffer from multiple forms of aggression and experience multiple acts over time. These women describe an atmosphere of terror that permeates abusive relationships.

Sexual coercion and abuse, including forcible rape as well as non-physical forms of pressure used to compel women and girls to engage in sexual acts against their will, is often met with physical and social consequences for a woman who resists. Indeed, much of nonconsensual sex occurs within consensual unions. A global study found that married women reported high rates of being physically forced to have sex or to engage in types of sexual activity that they found to be degrading and humiliating. The scholarship finds that most cycles of intimate partner violence begin with tension, then violence occurs, followed by a period of loving respite – but then patterns of abuse recur in an unpredictable fashion. The events Cassie recounts in her testimony map onto scholarship on intimate partner violence.

Women of color face high rates of violence

Cassie is of mixed ethnicity: Her mother is of African, Mexican, and West Indian ancestry and her father is Filipino. In the United States, she is identified as a woman of color. Research shows that women of color in the U.S. face disproportionately high rates of domestic violence and intimate partner homicides.

U.S. government data show that 45.1% of Black women (compared to 37.3% of white women) have experienced physical abuse and stalking in their lifetimes. And 51.3% of Black femicide cases were committed by an intimate partner. Systemic racism, discrimination, poverty, joblessness, lack of employment, housing insecurity, and negative neighborhood characteristics are factors that have been found to exacerbate the severity of domestic violence women of color face.

Furthermore, women of color who are survivors of domestic violence may avoid accessing formal resources to end the cycle of violence. That’s because they are socialized to be strong and adhere to community expectations that prioritize resilience. Many feel the need to shoulder their struggle alone. The desire to protect Black men who are victims of prejudice and receive unjust treatment after or during arrest is another rationale why women of color often suffer rather than seeking help.

Rather, women of color are most likely to seek formal assistance when the violence and sexual abuse has become intensly severe and they are worried about harm to their children or afraid that lethal violence may occur. Indeed, for Latinas and Black women, the severity of physical abuse increases the likelihood that a woman will seek help and leave an abusive relationship. Unfortunately, forms of physical and sexual abuse are so prevalent for Black women that Cassie’s testimony reflects a common experience for many women of color in the United States.

Learning from Cassie’s testimony

For Cassie, the final straw in her relationship with Diddy was not the years of alleged abuse and freak-offs or the alleged retaliatory violence against Kid Cudi, whom she had recently started dating. Instead, the turning point, she testified, came after the memorial service for Kim Porter, the mother of four of Diddy’s children whom he referred to as his “soulmate.” For Cassie, it was the emotional betrayal that ended the relationship.

As Black feminist scholar Treva Lindsey shows in America, Goddam, the combined forces of anti-Blackness, misogyny, patriarchy, and capitalism uniquely create systemic and structural abuses that create vulnerability to harm and death. The types of trauma and violence against Black women are often underreported and misunderstood. What Cassie testified about her relationship with Diddy exemplifies the kinds of abuse that happens in relationships – regardless of a person’s status – where the public often question women why they stayed – and blame women for the abuse that they endure.

The Diddy trial also reveals how Cassie’s refusal to remain silent against the violence against her is a radical form of self-love. Research indicates that women who end an abusive relationship typically follow an internal process. They first make a (re)connection with self, develop deeper connections with others, become empowered to act for themselves, and at the end of the process have developed a positive sense of self. Leaving an abusive relationship requires courage. Developing self-love is a courageous act in dysfunctional relationships rooted in economic dependency, isolation, learned helplessness, fear, lack of autonomy, lost sense of self, and re-victimization. Yet, self-love facilitates empowerment and encouragement. This is necessary in the micro-process of regaining courage to end an abusive relationship.

Once Cassie found her voice, perhaps through the process of increased self-love, she sought (and received) restitution. In this trial, she endured painful examination on the witness stand. Cassie’s perseverance and testimony about why she stayed in an allegedly abusive relationship – as well as why she (finally) left – serve as a form of self-liberationand a model for others who may be in similar situations.