A Matter of Life and Death: The Voices of Domestic Violence Survivors

In light of recent threats to funding for essential services, this qualitative study asked women survivors of domestic violence what they would do if their current services were no longer available. The themes seemed to span a continuum of resilience, from continuing to look for a way to escape the abuse, to uncertainty, to hopelessness and fear, and to resignation by staying in the abusive relationship. The majority of women reported that if domestic violence services were not available, they would remain with their abusers with dramatically negative consequences.