The studies showing that more than half of battered wives return to their husbands indicate that professionals should offer multiple options to both victims and perpetrators and should not decide that termination of the relationship is the only solution. To close the gap between research and questions, five broad topics should be examined: (1) how distressed marriages differ from violent marriages; (2) how multiple patterns of violence may be identified; (3) why some children with violent backgrounds fail to become violent adults; (4) whether the level of violence within a particular couple changes over time; and (5) how the dynamics of the violent marriage may be described. Without knowledge regarding these issues, prevention and treatment efforts will be hampered.