For the purposes of this paper, battered women are those who have experienced physically injurious behavior by men with whom they once had, or were continuing to have, an intimate relationship. Federal Bureau of Investigation data on injuries and deaths for 1982 indicate that 30 percent of female homicide victims were killed by their husbands or boyfriends. More than one million abused women seek medical help for injuries caused by battering each year. Etiological theories of spouse abuse focus on three different levels of explanation: intrapersonal, interpersonal, and sociocultural. Interventions include medical treatments, psychotherapy, criminal action, legal policymaking, and public education. The primary legal issues pertain to prosecution of the batterer and the civil protection of the victim. The primary ethical issue concerns whether or how vigorously a therapist should urge a battered woman to leave her husband. Research has centered in the incidence, etiology, and the treatment outcome for wife abuse. Recommendations are to develop typologies of abusers and victims so as to categorize them for intervention and to direct research toward modifiable rather than static variables. 15 references.