Public health and law enforcement professionals have become aware of the problem of domestic violence among community-dwelling women with developmental disabilities such as mental retardation. This article addresses, within an ecological framework, the service needs of such women as well as assumptions that should underlie treatment. The article discusses assessment and individual and group intervention, including development of a personal safety plan, and provides a case example. Although there is no published research in the professional literature on physical violence among people with developmental disabilities, the emerging consensus is that women with developmental disabilities are at particularly high risk of sexual abuse as both children and adults. The ecological model presented in the article identifies at the microsystem, mesosystem, and macrosystem levels factors that may be unique to women with mental retardation as well as factors that may contribute to violence toward women more generally. References