The battered wife syndrome and violence in the nuclear family of origin: a controlled pilot study.

Marital violence has long suffered inattention from social agencies and the health care system. Now as an emerging social problem, the battered woman has become the focus of numerous articles in the lay press which vividly describe her plight. Because there are no controlled studies of these women, little is known about the variables that distinguish them from the general population, and what might be done to reduce further abuse.