NCJ Number
138113
Date Published
1990
Length
376 pages
Annotation
This study compares the responses in Great Britain and the United States to the problem of domestic assault perpetrated against women by men, with emphasis on the battered women's movements and innovations at local, institutional, and national levels.
Abstract
The movement to develop crisis intervention and shelters for battered wives resulted directly from the women's rights movements in both countries. The first shelter in Great Britain resulted from the efforts of the group of women who opened Chiswick Women's Aid. The movement began a few years later in the United States. Growing awareness of the problem of spouse abuse led to the formation of new groups and the addition of spouse abuse to the agenda of existing groups. Currently, diversity in goals, programs, and organizational structure is greater within the American movement than within the British movement. Important internal issues include language, funding, style of working, divisions of labor, men, professionals and grassroots activists, class, race, homophobia, and research. The central goals of the movements concern the protection of abused women through victim assistance, together with change for all women through changes in sex discrimination in the domestic, economic, and political areas. In both countries, the movements have changed public and media perceptions, transformed the discourse on the subject, and produced new laws and revised police responses. The differences between the movements demonstrate the importance of social and political contexts to the process of social change. Reference notes, name and subject indexes, and 117 references