Why don’t they just leave? This question is haunting to anybody who has been in a domestic violence situation. It also is the first section in Dr. Weiss’s book. Judy North, a school teacher, Mandy Winchester, a house wife, and Dr. Weiss herself share their stories of abuse and how they came upon l

Saying that domestic violence is an aspect of our lives that will never end is giving up on a fight that to me seems hasn’t even begun. Domestic violence kills more women every year than anything else. We fight for breast cancer and AIDS. We learn in school about STDs and how your body works. We need to move on and include domestic violence in our education program. People say that learning our history will either foreshadow our future or prevent a future disaster. It all depends on whether people are educated of the facts. If people keep putting domestic violence out of public discussion then our history will sadly repeat itself. In the fifties women were being beaten and abused but kept it quiet because that was what they felt was right. If people fight to bring domestic violence to the forefront of public discussion then maybe fewer women will be afraid to stand up and protect themselves.

The third section is called “After It’s Over, It’s Not Over” and deals with the problems women go through after they leave an abusive relationship. What people don’t understand is that just because the woman has left doesn’t mean the situation is all resolved. Whitney Benson, Andrea Hartley, and Dawn Kincaid all share their stories of the pain and mental strain they dealt with after leaving their abusive relationships.

Whitney was described as a beautiful young woman who received a great education and seemed to be headed on the right tract to a successful life. We find out that because of scars she received from being brutally raped and beaten by her boyfriend. She was in an abusive relationship and when she got the strength to break up with her boyfriend, he ended up scarring her for life both physically and mentally. Whitney was dating the most popular boy in her Utah town. He controlled her eating, starving her for their whole courtship, and was so demeaning to her that she eventually ended their relationship. With her parents in love with her boyfriend and the whole town idolizing him, Whitney gave in to the pressure to take him back and at first it seemed as if he has changed. Then all the reasons she broke up with him came back even worse. Some scars on her body were his name that he scratched into her. Another incident happened outside a movie theatre where he slapped Whitney so hard she fell to the ground. No one did anything to reprimand him and he vocally told Whitney that. The violent cycle of breaking up and taking him back lasted three years and eventually ended when Whitney broke up with him for good and he broke into her home and raped her. To this day anything that reminds Whitney of her abuser bothers her; she hasn’t been able to live a regular life. Dr. Andrea Hartley was not your typical abuse victim. She married in her thirties and the abuse started the night of her wedding. She was only in an abusive relationship for four months. Unlike the other stories in the book, Andrea got away from her abuser quickly. He didn’t try to contact her nor did he threaten to get her. What she had to deal with was the constant question of why did she fall in love with a man that ended up abusing her. She grew up in a family that was loving and never did Andrea witness any violence or anger in her childhood. That is the complete opposite for Dawn Kincaid. She grew up not knowing her birth pare

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