I think I learned as much if not more than the students. The reader noted that he had frequently encountered women whose husbands impoverished themselves legally, on paper, and left women and their children destitute after the divorce settlement. In addition, he said he had encountered situations in which the man later reclaimed the assets and lived a prosperous life while the woman barely survived. This is not an untypical scenario. This type of violence is rarely taken as seriously as it should be by the legal system.
Domestic violence is more than a series of isolated physical attacks.
The goal of the batterer is to control every aspect of the victim's life. Physical violence, psychological abuse, and economic violence - are all intended to establish control and dominance. Batterers also frequently intervene at the victim's job, making threatening and distracting telephone calls, or forcing the victim to leave the workplace. These repeated interruptions often result in the victim losing the job. Then, the victim is even more dependent on the batterer, and therefore more easily controlled.