by Ann Jones

About the author: Author Ann Jones has conducted extensive interviews of female victims of domestic violence. This viewpoint is excerpted from her book Next Time She’ll Be Dead: Battering and How to Stop It.

“Domestic violence” is the leading cause of injury to women in the United States. According to the National Clearinghouse on Domestic Violence, men batter three or four million women a year. According to the National Centers for Disease Control, more women are treated in emergency rooms for battering injuries than for (nonmarital) rapes, muggings, and traffic accidents combined. Untold numbers of women suffer permanent injuries—brain damage, blindness, deafness, speech loss through laryngeal damage, disfigurement and mutilation, damage to or loss of internal organs, paralysis, sterility, and so on. Countless pregnant women miscarry as...