Violence against women permeates our society at every level, in every setting. Murder, rape, intimidation, pornography, workplace harassment, incest are all part of a general belief built into the roots of patriarchal society: Women are proper targets of male violence.

The chapters in this book, contributed by some of the most prolific contemporary writers on women's issues, explore this culture of violence and oppression, examining its ideological underpinnings and its structural supports in the social, political and legal systems that protect the violent by blaming the victim.