ABSTRACT
Domestic violence has, since the 1970s, been increasingly recognised as a serious social problem. There is, of course, a great deal of historical evidence to show that women have always suffered violence from their husbands and partners (see Martin 1976; Tomes 1978; Dobash and Dobash 1979; Freeman 1979; Smith 1989; Clarke 1992; Doggett 1992; see Chapter 11). However, it is a problem that has only become publicly evident at times when there has been a strong feminist movement, enabling the collective organisation against its occurrence (Freeman 1979; Brokowski et al. 1983; Wilson 1983). Thus, it was an issue for first wave feminists at the end of the nineteenth century, as it is for this generation of feminists (Cobbe 1904). Today, programmes on television or the radio or an article written about the subject are far more common. Domestic violence has become a priority issue for many local authorities and police divisions in Great Britain.
