The book first discusses major psychological issues in the domestic violence field, including psychosocial characteristics of the women, men, and children; links between spouse abuse and other forms of interpersonal violence; and the role of substance abuse. Other areas covered are the high lethal level of battering incidents, sexual issues for the battered woman, and the impact of domestic violence on children. The next chapters focus on theoretical perspectives drawn from prior research and concepts tested in the Rocky Mountain study. They describe personality characteristics which identify battered women and the learned-helplessness theory, which maintains that early social influences on women facilitate a psychological condition that causes women to feel powerless to effect positive control over their lives. The study data support this theory as well as the belief that battering occurs in repeated cycles, each having three phases -- tension building; acute battering; and loving, contrite behavior. The final chapters discuss the implications of these findings for the fields of law and clinical psychology. The appendixes contain detailed information on the study's findings and methodology.