This was a week ago, I still haven't talked to him. I don't know what I can say to make him forgive me. I've texted him a few times and he's ignored them all. And I am not brave enough to go to his house. I don't have a lot of friends with whom I can talk about this, so that's why I came here. What can I do to fix this?

You haven't spoken to him in a week? You've been dumped, plan and simple. There isn't anything you can do to fix it because that ship has already sailed right out of port. Your only option, at this point, is to move on or pursue getting him back.

He has been abusive before in the past and has been physical but I think people can change and I believe he has.

Look, I know absolutely nothing about the extent to which you mean "abusive" and "physical". I could make assumptions, but that isn't really something I want to draw attention to. What I want to draw attention to is this "I think people can change".

I mean this with absolutely no disrespect, but I think you are too young and inexperienced to make this sort of judgement. After all, I noticed further into the replies that you mention that this is your first real relationship. Again, I'm not going to make assumptions about what has happened in your past, I'm just going to use what you've already told us to determine that.

I deal with 2-5 domestic violence cases a day. In the overwhelming majority of them, a case search finds that they've already been charged with it before. Often, a simple call back to my dispatcher reveals that this is the second, third, fourth, etc. time we've been back in a short time.

Do you want to know what you've got in common with them? They've all told me that they thought this person could change, and had actually done so. They went back to them and this is where we are now. In about a month's time, they'll regret pressing charges at all and probably end up going back. Every day, I sincerely hope that I won't return there and find out that I'm dealing with homicide. Knock on wood, I haven't yet, but it's probably going to be coming in the near future.

I apologize for being blunt, but I really doubt that you have enough experience in this domain to make that determination. I feel that I really have to say something because this is a belief that is 1). held out of the inexperience of youth and 2). dangerous because it's fundamentally naive.

I'm not saying that people cannot change. They most certainly can. All that I'm saying is that in the overwhelming majority of these cases, based on what I've seen, it's unlikely that they will change and there is a bias that tends to blind victims to the fact that they haven't changed.