ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an ethnography which is comprised of personal narratives of victims of domestic abuse and homelessness. It addresses a number of issues surrounding the provision of services for homeless women and domestic abuse victims, including the effectiveness of assistance programs and laws and potential solutions to the problems of both domestic abuse and homelessness. Domestic abuse is an unusually important form of victimization by one person against another because of the many significant relationships: family lifestyle, religious and cultural background, child-rearing practices, foodways, health issues, teen relationships, divorce, binuclear families, intergenerational cyclic tendencies, and recidivism. The implication that physical attack is an integral factor in "domestic violence" still exists, however, by the utilization of the words "battered" and "violence". "Domestic abuse", for example, is more appropriate than "domestic violence", as is "abused wives" as opposed to "battered wives". The general public tends to designate anyone without a "permanent home", rented room, apartment, trailer, or house, as homeless.
