Data were collected from women seeking admission to a spouse abuse shelter in a small southern city. The questionnaire which they completed requested demographics and a wide variety of attitudinal data. It was reported that the police rarely made referrals to helping agencies and that the most common police action was to 'talk' to the assaulter/batterer. Victims' feelings toward self were not nearly as negative overall in this sample as is typically assumed of abused women. Some support was found for a series of hypotheses that positive police responses enhance the victims' self-image and encourage them to seek mobilization of the law. (Author abstract)