For many families, dowry giving in India has become a status symbol that has penetrated all socio-economic levels of the country. This has resulted in serious problems for many middle and lower class women. To handle the growing number of disputes relating to marriage and family affairs, a family court system was established two decades ago throughout India. Dowry victims in the State of Tamil Nadu can now seek help from two kinds of organizations: women’s help centers and AWPUs, or All-Women Police Units. The AWPUs mainly deal with crimes against women, but they also deal with family disputes, marital problems, sexual assaults, and rape. Two sources of data were used to examine the dispute resolution services extended by the AWPUs to dowry victims: police case records and interviews with a sample of women victims. Case record data were obtained from the 3 AWPUs in the city of Chennai, and the following information was obtained from a sample of 474 cases: nature of the petition, action taken by the police, and outcome of the case. Interviews were conducted with 60 of the women victims, randomly selected from the 474 cases. Analysis of the data found that a majority of the women, 93 percent, were satisfied with the immediate response of the police and that many of the cases were successfully resolved and violence was frequently reduced. The success of the AWPUs shows the need for increased training in dispute resolution techniques for women police. Tables, notes, references