n why it happens; nevertheless it does happen every sleepless night in numerous homes in neighborhoods just like any other. Thousands of articles, pamphlets and books have been written on the subject in an effort to enlighten the population on domestic abuse. Anna Quindlen, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist, wrote her book Black and Blue on the issue, and except for a few inaccuracies did an accurate job of portraying a fictional account of abuse and its perpetrators, the vi!
             "The rest of the time I was afraid. In my own home. With my own husband. It made me ashamed, to live behind that face, to think of myself as a person who looked that way," these are the words of Frances Benedetto, Anna Quindlen's victim of spousal abuse (Quindlen 35). She is an ordinary woman who got beaten up by her husband, just like the statistics suggest, ordinary. Frances did not provoke the violence; it just came when all she wanted was a house of her own with her children playing in the backyard. Domestic abuse for the most part does not discriminate, regardless of ethnic background, economic status, age, or religion it can happen to anyone (AMA Health Insight 2). However, there certain groups of women that are at higher risk, like women between the ages of seventeen and twenty-eight (AMA Health Insight 2). In the opening line of the book Fran Benedetto says, "The first time my husband hit me I was nineteen years old." Possibly at these young ages women feel mo!
             re vulnerable and less confident. Other risk factors are self-esteem; a poor self-esteem attracts abuse like honey attracts bears. (Kate's Page on Domestic Violence 2). It is never bluntly said that Fran did not value herself, but it can be concluded from the way she talks and thinks about her childhood life. Her family was poor, and they often moved, "Eight apartments I'd live in with my parents before I'd married Bobby whe...