Ninety-six women were murdered by their spouses or partners in the past seven years. We are not alone in these statistics. Battering is the single biggest cause of injury to women in the USA with 4,000 women a year being beaten to death by their partner. In Sweden, every ten days a woman is beaten to death and its 115 refuge centres are constantly full. Twenty-five per cent of women in Britain suffer physical abuse from their partners. In Canada, 39% of women report having been assaulted at some stage.