Many men feel they have a right to exert power and control over the women in their lives. Battering is a crime. The privacy traditionally granted to batterers encourages their behavior and further endangers the victim. The women's movement can be credited with confronting social acceptance of wifebeating. Major institutions such as the U.S. Department of Justice and the International Police Chief's Association are calling for new policies which hold batterers accountable for criminal behavior.
Many women do.
Last year over 5,000 women and children in this state fled toshelters for battered women. However, some women do stay because they have been threatened with worse harm if they leave or because they are economically dependent on their partner. Others have lost confidence and feel powerless to change the situation while some believe their partner's promise that he will change. Battering does not always end when the woman leaves. Some of the most tragic assaults in Massachusetts have been committed by ex-husbands and former boyfriends.