What happens if there are no visible injuries?

The absence of injury doesn't prevent an arrest or a prosecution. Battery can be established by an intentional touching against the person's will — no injury required.

So a case can rest entirely on the complaining witness's account, the 911 recording, officer observations of the scene and of both people's demeanor, and any statements made at the time.

Where the absence of injury does help: it can be genuinely significant with a jury, particularly where the allegation describes conduct that would ordinarily leave marks. Scene photographs showing an undisturbed room, and medical records documenting no findings, both do work.

It also matters in strangulation cases, where the State often has to explain the absence of visible injury through expert or medical testimony — which is itself examinable.

The realistic framing: no injuries makes the State's case harder, not impossible. What decides these cases is usually the consistency of the account and what the recordings actually captured.