The probability sample of eligible households included adults 18 and older, married, presently living as a male-female couple, divorced or separated, and single parents with a child under 18 living in the household. They were interviewed for an average of 35 minutes. The feminist and ambiguity theories are described to explain the reluctance of battered women to seek criminal justice and police failure to intervene in wife abuse cases. Violence is defined as 'an act carried out with the intention or perceived intention to causing physical pain or injury to another person.' Prevalence rates as estimated by the National Crime Survey and the National Family Violence Survey are compared. NCS has estimated 420,000 domestic assault victims (largely women) per year for the years 1978 to 1982, while the 1975 NFVS estimates 1.8 million wife abuse victims per year. Factors affecting reports to police as discussed include severity of abuse, social characteristics (race, income, husband's unemployment, and wife's employment), size of city, drinking and drunkenness. Results reveal that reports to the police were the exception rather than the rule, with only 6.7 percent of all husband-to-wife assaults reported. Of these, 3.2 percent involving minor violence and 14.4 percent severe violence. Severity of violence was the most important correlate associated with reports to police. 1 footnote, approximately 40 references, and 3 tables.