帮助这些妇女是罗斯·希伦(Rose Thelen)的事业。她与家庭暴力作斗争已经超过三十年，并且是位于明尼苏达州(Minnesota)的性别暴力协会(Gender Violence Institute)的负责人。在那里，她呼吁颁行能帮助受害者寻求正义的法律，并呼吁提供热线电话等能让受害者举报虐待行为的服务。

希伦说，妇女是殴打或家庭暴力的“最主要的受害者”。暴力“通常是持续的，并可能导致严重的人身伤害和死亡。” 此外，她还指出了其他的受害方：“儿童、施虐者、医疗系统、刑事司法系统、企业、家庭，朋友和社会。”

暴力并不是唯一的后果。再加上更高的医疗和法律费用。还有生产力损失。而且，最严重的损失是，每一个受害妇女本来可能对她们国家的道德、社会和政治生活所作出的贡献。

庇护所和热线电话是重要的第一步。希伦说，热线电话将女性与她们所需要的帮助联系起来，并通过提供关于暴力问题的严重程度的信息，帮助维权者争取解决暴力问题的更多措施。

保护受害人，同时制止施暴者

希伦说，为受害者提供庇护所和重建生活的服务只是解决方案的一部分。我们还必须遏制施暴者。

由于大多数施暴者利用暴力来确立权力，并对他们的受害者实施控制，因此社区在予以应对时必须剥夺那些施暴者以为能得到的“好处”。 希伦建议立法，以便：

• 将家庭暴力定为犯罪行为。
• 让法院禁止施暴者接近受害者。
• 在离婚和子女监护案中，考虑到过去的虐待事件对儿童和成人受害者的影响。

此外，希伦也呼吁警方和法院改进他们评估、调查和起诉家庭暴力案件的做法。

这一努力的目标是：将制止暴力的责任从受害者（最无力制止暴力的人）身上转到警察、法院和社区方面。

希伦得出结论认为，男性必须是解决方案的一部分：“我认为随着更多的男人……表明虐待所爱的女人不再是可以有的行为，我们将会看到迅速发生的社会变化。”

Domestic abuse might seem personal. But it harms the whole community.
 

Women who face beatings or other forms of domestic violence typically have only three choices: They can fight back, and likely face a worse beating; they can submit; or they can leave — if there’s someone they can turn to and somewhere they can go.

Helping such women is Rose Thelen’s cause. She’s fought domestic violence for more than three decades and heads the Gender Violence Institute in Minnesota. There she advocates for laws that empower victims to seek justice and for services, such as telephone hotlines that allow victims to report abuse.

Women are “overwhelmingly the victims” of battering or domestic violence, Thelen says. The violence “is usually ongoing and can lead to serious injury and death.” But she said additional victims can include children, the health care system, the criminal justice system, businesses, families, friends and society.

And violence is not the only cost. Add in greater health care and legal expenses. And lost productivity. And, most fundamentally, every contribution that battered women could have made to the moral, social and political fabric of their nations.

Shelters and telephone hotlines are important first steps. Hotlines, Thelen says, link women to the help they need and, by providing information about the scope of the problem, help advocates argue for additional steps to address the violence.

Protect the victim. But also deter the abuser.

Providing a victim with refuge and services to rebuild her life is only half of the solution, Thelen says. The abuser must be deterred.

Because most abusers employ violence to assert power and control over their victims, the community response must deprive the abuser of those perceived “benefits.” Thelen recommends laws that:

• Make domestic violence a crime.
• Allow courts to forbid abusers from even approaching their victims.
• Consider, in divorce and child custody cases, the impact that past abuse has on the child as well as the adult victim.

Thelen similarly calls on police and the courts to improve how they assess, investigate and prosecute domestic abuse cases.

The goal: Shift responsibility for ending the violence from the victim, who is least able to stop it, to police, courts and the community itself.

Thelen concludes that men must be part of the solution: “I think we will see rapid societal changes as more men … say it is no longer okay to abuse the woman you love.”