Hitting home; domestic violence is the issue that embarrasses traditionalists. Today, despite greater awareness and a variety of model programs, partner abuse is still far too prevalent. (Cover Story).

A LEATHERY WOMAN WITH A DARKENING BLACK eye smokes cigarettes through the spaces of her missing front teeth and tells the police how her boyfriend slapped and bit her because he didn't like her grandchildren. Another woman tells a counselor at a shelter that she's tried to leave her husband 15 times in the two years that she's been married to him. Still another can't speak at all, her moans incoherent as she's wheeled out of her house on a stretcher covered in blood, her cheek slashed into two loose flaps from the corner of her mouth.

These graphic details of domestic abuse ...

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