“…Physical and sexual assault by partners has been associated with a wide variety of serious health problems aecting both women and their children, including injuries due to trauma (Grisso, Schwarz, Miles & Holmes, 1996;Abbott, Johnson, Koziol-McLain & Lowenstein, 1995;McLeer & Anwar, 1989), low birth weight (Bullock & McFarlane, 1989;Parker, McFarlane & Soeken, 1994;Curry, Perrin & Wall, 1998), chronic pelvic pain and other gynaecological problems (Schei & Bakketeig, 1989;Golding, 1996), depression (Roberts, Lawrence, Williams & Raphael, 1998;Campbell & Lewandowski, 1997;Danielson, Mott, Caspi & Silva, 1998), suicide (Walker, 1994;Amaro, Fried, Cabral & Zuckerman, 1990;Stark & Flitcraft, 1996;Counts, 1987), unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (Gazmararian, Adams, Saltzman, Johnson, Bruce, Marks & Zahniser, 1995;Campbell, Pugh, Campbell & Visscher, 1995;Heise, et al, 1999;Handwerker, 1993). Although violence can have direct health consequences, it also increases women's risk of future ill health.…”