Domestic violence continues to be one of the most pervasive, traumatic, life-threatening, and harmful family problems in society today. A new 5-level classificatory schema or continuum of the duration and severity of woman battering is proposed for assessment and intervention. The continuum is based on 501 in-depth interviews with battered women in emergency shelters, police departments, and a large state women's prison. The underlying goal of identifying different types of battering relationships is to provide social workers and forensic specialists with psychosocial indicators that can be used as a basis for early case-finding, crisis intervention, and preventive intervention. Crisis intervention protocols and other intervention strategies are needed with abused women throughout North America.
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