Although a relatively recent field of inquiry, the exploration of the antecedents and consequences of violence, especially intimate violence, in women has rapidly developed a rich and varied literature. Perhaps this expansion of scientific investigation has been fueled by the fact that there is no field of medical, psychiatric, psychological, or human service practice where encounters with women who have been victimized by their partners or other intimates does not occur daily, whether practitioners recognize it or not. The phenomenon does not know any national, ethnic, or religious boundaries and has been, unfortunately, a consistent feature of human societies over time. Consequently, practitioners in the healing professions and researchers in many branches of behavioral science have both an obligation and a need to understand what is known about the factors that contribute to, sustain, and are the result of intimate victimization in women. The problem has more recently been to keep up with the expanding literature and digest it into a coherent body of knowledge that can inform practice. What we have in Women and Victimization: Contributing Factors, Interventions, and Implications by TK Logan, Robert Walker, Carol Jordan, and Carl Leukefeld is a marvelously wrought tool to do exactly that.

doi : 10.5214/ans.0972.7531.2009.160310