About half of the women in the United States and Canada have been physically or
sexually assaulted after the age of 16. The figures in other countries are
similar. Written by an outsider (an anthropologist) and an insider (a spousal
abuse survivor), this book offers a humanistic, rather than statistical,
overview of the problem of spousal abuse. It is based on an extensive set of
interviews with abused women and individuals who seek to help them (shelter
workers, police officers, marriage counselors). More particularly, it follows
four women as they move through the steps they must follow to extricate
themselves from an abusive relationship and then