Very little research has examined the experiences of Black and White rural battered women. In this exploratory study of 88 participants, 30 rural battered women who sought assistance from domestic violence shelters in southwest Virginia were interviewed. Black and White rural women’s experiences in the shelters, helpseeking, and perceived social support during and after their stay in the shelte...

The first descriptions of the injuries associated with child abuse are commonly attributed to the French pathologist Auguste Ambroise Tardieu. His “Étude médico-légale sur les sévices et mauvais traitements exercés sur des enfants” (Forensic Study on Cruelty and the Ill Treatment of Children) in 1860 described findings of child fatalities from “acts of cruelty and ill treatment, of which young ...

As Evan Stark observes, getting domestic violence against women recognized as coercive control will require a major effort of storytelling. Women's accounts of subjugation have to be narrated in a way that is both true to their experiences and capable of eliciting public understanding, sympathy, and action. This essay draws on an interdisciplinary literature on narrative to show why doing that ...

Because many world folk stories describe wife abuse with remarkable insight, these stories are useful in addressing the sensitive issues that arise when counseling battered women. Following the views of Milton Erickson and Joan Laird about the importance of stories as a therapeutic tool, techniques were developed in a regional Coalition for Battered Women in North Carolina to use folk stories a...