According to research carried out in Latin America, between one-quarter and one-half of all women in Latin American countries have reported suffering abuse at the hands of their partners. This study drew on the concept of a “critical path” to understand the logic and the actions taken by women who suffer violence, as well as the intervening factors to seeking and securing help. An interactive qualitative methodology, coupled with a research protocol that adapted for different ethnic groups, was employed to capture the subjective aspects of women’s experiences. Semistructured interviews were conducted with approximately 900 women within 16 communities in 10 countries (7 Central American and 3 Andean countries) who suffered domestic violence. The analysis focused on similarities and differences in the processes engaged in by the women who sought help and in the social responses encountered during the help-seeking process. The results illuminate the complex process of seeking help which is not linear and is, at times, even contradictory. Consistent obstacles to help-seeking revolved around culturally reinforced distortions of family violence and the women who suffer from it. When abused women sought help from existing institutions, support and useful information was almost never received. Overall, the results reveal the often large chasm between the professed democratic consciousness in the countries under study and the reality of social justice for women suffering domestic violence. References