This chapter discusses the distrust and caution that grass roots activists in the battered women's movement have been forced to maintain toward professionals and researchers and outlines suggestions about more respectful ways to approach battered women and their grass roots service providers. Researchers and battered women's activists need to explore three troubling areas: differences over research priorities, differences in ideology, and ethics. Many grass roots activists hesitate to cooperate with researchers for several reasons: promises of confidentiality and payment and guarantees of safety have been broken; commitments to share and review findings have not materialized; and research studies with potentially significant impact on police and court practice have begun without any discussion with battered women's advocates. Researchers and grass roots activities can offer each other much if they can first build some trust. 3 references