The contributors to this volume -- practitioners, planners, and policy-oriented professionals -- are all concerned with the ways in which women are collectively and individually abused in contemporary society. Despite an apparent rise in the consciousness of the general public with respect to these crimes, the victims continue to be subjected to a second ′victimization′ by the criminal justice system, the community, and sometimes their families, who suggest that the women contributed to their criminal victimization or even ′deserved it′.