This book introduced a new model of woman defined advocacy that was designed to bridge the gap that sometimes occurs between a battered woman's perspective and a victim's advocate's perception. Created to improve service delivery to women who are victims of domestic violence, this model emphasized placing attention on the victim's assessment of the risk in the violent relationship and on her decision making. The authors aim to help advocates better understand battered women's decisions, including the decision to stay in an abusive relationship, to improve advocacy for victims with various cultural experiences and backgrounds, and to provide advocates with assistance in redesigning their services so they may better meet the needs of battered women.

 The second edition will be updated to include current research, greater emphasis on working with marginalized populations, an expanded advocacy framework, more emphasis on client strengths and strengths based perspective, and more pedagogical elements will be introduced.