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Rating: 
Summary: An important beginning....
Review: ...especially since even now the leading cause of women going to emergency rooms in the U.S. is domestic violence. Having worked as a counselor in the DV field for some years, I've seen the damage done and know it to be vastly underestimated, statistically and otherwise, even now. Walker led the charge against the kind of denial and victim-blaming that would claim the entire mess--which amounts to nothing less than terrorism in the home--is some kind of mistake, miscommunication, family problem, or lie.
Rating:
Summary: An important beginning....
Review: ...especially since even now the leading cause of women going to emergency rooms in the U.S. is domestic violence. Having worked as a counselor in the DV field for some years, I've seen the damage done and know it to be vastly underestimated, statistically and otherwise, even now. Walker led the charge against the kind of denial and victim-blaming that would claim the entire mess--which amounts to nothing less than terrorism in the home--is some kind of mistake, miscommunication, family problem, or lie.
Rating: 
Summary: If you don't know make it up
Review: Another reader says: <this reader was left to "figure out" where the statistics came from.> That's because half this stuff is made up! Walker is one of the people who started the "Super Bowl Wife Abuse" myth. She hurts the cause more than help it - like the boy who cried wolf.
Rating:
Summary: If you don't know make it up
Review: Another reader says: That's because half this stuff is made up! Walker is one of the people who started the "Super Bowl Wife Abuse" myth. She hurts the cause more than help it - like the boy who cried wolf.
Rating: 
Summary: Reading it is a cathartic experience
Review: I agree with both previous reviewers in that the book does lack extensive references. The point, though, is that this was a seminal work when it was published in 1979. The cycle theory of violence had not been clearly articulated prior to this book. Walker also worked on developing the idea of learned helplessnes in victims of domestic violence. Both theories are important and although psychologists and DV advocates have since expanded on both and developed new ideas, Walker's ideas still have a place in the history of the development of an understanding of battered women's lives and experiences. I would recommend it as a good starting point in a reader's search for an understanding of domestic violence. Since then, more authoritative texts based on more extensive and better-documented research have been published, but The Battered Woman serves it's instructive purpose well. It provides the shock value and pain that a reader must experience in order to begin to understand the full impact of DV upon its victims.
Rating:
Summary: Would serve as ideal "awareness" literature.
Review: The book, "Battered Women" by Lenore Walker offered a unique insight into the horrifying conditions that battered women had to endure in abusive relationships. Plenty of statistics, facts and figures were provided, but references and citations were almost non-existent. Worse still, there was no bibliography and this reader was left to "figure out" where the statistics came from. Readers should not draw generalizations from the book either, since all information in the book regarding battered women were taken from a selected group and was therefore not representative of a random sample from which unbiased, objective generalizations could be made. The book would make ideal "awareness" literature, but given its shortcomings, the book should not be used as "scholarly" reference.
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