The sample of 493 women was obtained from the baseline survey of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). In the ALSWH survey, women were asked the screening question, "Have you ever been in a violent relationship with a partner or spouse?" Young women who answered "yes" constituted the sampling frame for the study of domestic violence, which was conducted in 1998. The interview with this sample was based on the schedule used in the 1993 Canadian Violence Against Women survey, using Computer Assisted Telephone Interview procedure. Nearly half of the sample had been subject to serious violence (beaten, choked, threatened, or attempted shooting). Almost one-third of the women sought legal intervention in an attempt to stop physical violence by their partners. The two most common actions were contacting the police only (48 percent) and both contacting the police and obtaining a protection order (31 percent). Only 7 percent obtained a protection order only. Contacting both police and obtaining a court order was more effective than only contacting the police. For these women there was no instance of increased severity of violence after legal protection, and most of the group experienced substantial reductions. Despite the methodological limitations of this observational study, the researchers believe it provides the strongest evidence available to date that preventive strategies for young women at the early stage of a relationship can eliminate, or at least reduce, physical violence by a partner. 6 tables and 27 references