| Author/Contributor(s): | Walker, Lenore E. |
| Publisher: | William Morrow Paperbacks |
| Date: | 4/30/1980 |
| Binding: | Paperback |
| Condition: | NEW |
"A major contribution to this subject.
She is thorough, practical, compassionate, and authoritative. Drawing on interviews with over 120 women, Walker documents the coercive patterns of physical, sexual, and economic abuse.
Walker explains the three-stage cycle of violence and the psychological paralysis that keeps victims trapped in marriage. The volume is systematic, candid, and grounded in direct clinical observation.
The work remains rigorous, lucid, and focused on institutional remedies, from hospital emergency rooms to early safe houses. It is a reading must."—Phyllis Chesler
- Domestic Violence: Walker challenges the legal tradition of benign neglect and the historic stick rule that once sanctioned marital assault, demonstrating how police dismissals and inadequate court protections leave women exposed.
- Clinical Psychology: The text examines how batterers frequently minimize their assaults or blame alcohol use, presenting dual personalities that swing from public charm to explosive private rage.
- Feminist Theory: Research dismantles the persistent stereotype of female masochism, showing that victims stay because societal institutions enforce economic dependence and offer virtually no outside safety.
- Sociology: Field investigations reveal that domestic brutality cuts across all socioeconomic classes, involving affluent professionals, corporate executives, and public officials as readily as low-income households.