Cases like these and so many others make clear that domestic violence, rather than being a private problem, is a most urgent matter of public health.
-- Rachel Snyder (Preface)

Importance: This quote challenges readers to rethink and recontextualize how domestic violence has been and is conceived of by American society. In context, this quote references the strong connections between mass shootings and domestic violence incidents, noting that the violence perpetrated by mass shooters often begins in a domestic situation and escalates from there. In addition to this link between visible public crimes and those that often occur behind closed doors, the epidemic nature of domestic violence further underscores the idea that it is an issue that has reached a crisis point and which demands public attention.

They stay in abusive marriages because they understand something that most of us do not, something from the inside out, something that seems to defy logic: as dangerous...
-- Rachel Louise Snyder (Little Lunatics)