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 get on with their lives. The reader witnesses their success and failures as they face a task that is both necessary and daunting, and the effects that spousal abuse (and at attempts stopping the abuse) have on an ever-widening circle of people.

This book illustrates how society in general and individuals and organizations in particular help and hinder the process of extrication - often at the same time. By analyzing the solutions, and their implications, that have been offered to and by the abused women, the authors arrive at a set of alternative solutions that could significantly reduce the incidence of spouse abuse in the future.