1. Are many women beaten by their husbands or boyfriends?  Domestic violence is one of the most serious public health threats facing women in the United States today.  An estimated three to six million women are beaten by their partner or ex-partner every year.  Last year, close to 19,000 Abuse Prevention Act petitions were filed in Massachusetts courts.  The majority by women seeking protection from violent partners.    2. Is battering a problem of low income groups?  Every major study of domestic violence has found that battering cuts across all classes, races, ages, religions, and occupations.  Massachusetts men who have murdered their wives in recent years have included a business school student, a police officer, and a computer engineer.  According to police reports, men who killed their partners in 1984 ranged in age from 26-36.  3. Is battering a new problem?  Wifebeating was a husband's right in Western legal history.  Women were considered their husband's property under the law.  In fact, the "rule of thumb" in British Common Law in 1768 "limited" husbands to chastising their wives with a stick no thicker in circumference than their thumb.  While wifebeating is now illegal, the attitudes which perpetuate it carry on, most notably male dominance in the family.  Many men feel they have a right to exert power and control over the women in their lives.    4. Isn't battering a private family matter?  Battering is a crime.  The privacy traditionally granted to batterers encourages their behavior and further endangers the victim.  The women's movement can be credited with confronting social acceptance of wifebeating.  Major institutions such as the U.S. Department of Justice and the International Police Chief's Association are calling for new policies which hold batterers accountable for criminal behavior.  5. Why wouldn't a woman just leave if she's being beaten?  Many women do.  Last year over 5,000 women and children in this state fled toshelters for battered women.  However, some women do stay because they have been threatened with worse harm if they leave or because they are economically dependent on their partner.  Others have lost confidence and feel powerless to change the situation while some believe their partner's promise that he will change.  Battering does not always end when the woman leaves. Some of the most tragic assaults in Massachusetts have been committed by ex-husbands and former boyfriends.  6. Are all batterers alcoholics?  Were all batterers beaten as children themselves?  Some are alcoholics, some are not, some were beaten as children, some were not here is no such thing as a typical batterer.  Many will use drinking as an excuse just as a doctor who batters may blame pressure on the job, or an unemployed person may blame his joblessness.  7. Doesn't the woman provoke the violence in some way?  Violence is the sole responsibility of the violent person.  No one deserves to beaten.  Counselors, police officers, and friends who ask, "What did you do to make him blow up?" are implicitly blaming the victim.  8. Should the couple get marriage counseling?  Marriage counseling has not proven effective in ending abuse.  It conveys the message that the batterer's violence is both partners' responsibility, which it is not. Also, as long as the abuser is violent, it is unsafe for the woman to be with him.  9. What is recommended?  The safest approach is for a woman to separate from a violent partner.  Many batterers promise they will change, but very few follow through.  The most encouraging signs are when the batterer:  (1) Accepts full responsibility for his actions  (2) Examines all ways in which he attempts to control and dominate his partner,  (3) Sticks with a batterer's program, counseling, or other alternative, and   is violence-free for one year.    10. What about wives who batter their husbands?  Battering involves a pattern of chronic abuse in which the victim often feels trapped and physically at risk.  In some instances the abusive partner is the woman.However, the Department of Justice reports that men commit 95% of all spouse assaults.  It is important to note that domestic violence between adults also includes elder abuse, abuse within same sex couples, and abuse between grown siblings or other relatives.

"He wouldn't let her do anything by herself.  She had no friends.  He wouldn't let her see her family.  He wouldn't let her work.  He literally kept her in a cage." Brother of battered woman murdered by her husband.                                             Lowell, Mass           "When my husband tried to kill me, I finally called thepolice who came, took a look at the house and me and we were both broken and bloody, asked if my husband was gone - he was - and said, "Lady it's his house, he can do what he wants." Testimony U.S. Attorney General's  Task Force on Family Violence.                    "My ex-husband called me in the middle of The Burning Bed and said, 'You'll never get away from me.  I'll love you until the day you die' -  He always says he'll burn my house down while I'm asleep - it's always in the back of my mind he'll come back and kill us."   Battered woman  Massachusetts                "I could be late getting home from work.  I didn't cook theeggs right. Anything could do it.  Then he'd use his fists or his boots - and he was famous for gun barrels and boiling water."   Battered woman Barnstable, Mass               "I wanted to believe him when he said that it wouldn'thappen again, that he loved me., that he'd get help. But he was not honest.  When he started therapy, I had hopes - I found out later he never went."  Battered woman  Salem, Mass.              "The legal response to family violence must be guided primarily by the nature of the abusive act not the relationship between the victim and the abuser."   U.S. Attorney General's Task Force on Family Violence