The stresses of poverty contribute to violence and seem to make the problem more common among those at the bottom of the class structure, but nonetheless most poor people are not violent. Being reared in abusive circumstances makes men more likely to be abusers and women more likely to be victims, but most children reared under these conditions are neither abusers nor victims. In a few cases men are beaten by women, although rarely do men suffer serious physical injury. Frequently there is no workable solution for female victims of domestic violence. For some victims the unrelenting cycle of violence produces diminished self-esteem, helplessness, depression, and exaggerated feelings of imprisonment, even the belief that they deserve abuse.
More material obstacles stand in the way of most victims.
Many are financially dependent on their abusers, and, since many abuse victims are mothers, they particularly fear being unable to support their children if they leave a violent partner. Many fear reporting the crime because the police can offer no reliable protection against men's retaliation. One hundred and fifty years ago most legal systems implicitly accepted wife-beating as a husband's right, part of his entitlement to control over the resources and services of his wife. But few women had realistic sources of help, and most police forces did nothing to protect women. The revived women's movement of the 1970s brought the issue of domestic violence into the open.