Explores the law, policy, history, and theory of domestic violence. Examines the limits of legal methods and remedies for holding batterers accountable and keeping victims safe; the dynamics of abusive relationships; the history of the criminal justice system's response to domestic violence; the defenses available to battered persons who kill their abusers; the legal paradigm of the sympathetic victim; psychological and feminist theories about abusive relationships; civil rights and tort liability for batterers and third parties; and the intersection of domestic violence with international human rights.