They change tactics over time- always for a reason.
My ex was more overtly physically abusive when we lived far from family and friends, then when we moved nearer them, he realised he needed to be more covert in his methods. So the financial, emotional, mental
and sexual abuse all took over, all cleverly masked from people and dressed up as something else quite often.
The mental, emotional and financial abuse was as soul-destroying as the physical and sexual.