NCJ Number
166398
Date Published
1997
Length
112 pages
Annotation
This book presents the stories of four battered women, largely in their own words, and suggests how readers can become involved in helping such victims.
Abstract
Megan, a 24-year-old woman, tells the story of her life with a battering boyfriend. She advises that her story shows that battered women are not all poor, ugly, lonely, and desperate. Carmen, a single mother in her mid-twenties, lives in a homeless shelter, and her abusive boyfriend is in jail. She says that even today she still misses and loves the man who beat her. Lisa, a young single mother, recounts her experience of living with an abusive boyfriend who also vented his anger on her children. She believes it was her increasing anger and resentment that finally gave her the courage to pressure the boyfriend to move out of their house. Mary reports that in spite of the fact that her boyfriend beat her the night before her wedding, she went through with the marriage to her batterer and had children by him, hoping things would get better. One suggestion for readers to become involved in addressing the problem is to find out what sorts of shelters for battered women exist in the community and determine ways to support shelter services. A second suggestion is to volunteer as a babysitter for the children of abused women while they are attending classes or are looking for more permanent housing. Other suggestions are to make posters about dating and violence and to contact any of the resource organizations listed in the book for additional information. A 6-item annotated bibliography and a subject index