Letter: Victims of domestic violence want different outcomes

WOMEN, MANY women, feminists and those who do not recognise the term, have fought a long and terrible battle for and with women who are battered. It is this struggle that has led to the apparently (according to Carolyn Hoyle's work) positive responses of so many modern police officers. Did Ms Hoyle recognise this achievement in her book?

She may be right that we need a range of provision to suit women's needs, concerns and desires as expressed to her. But such provision needs to be set in the context of the fact that women want their families to stay together, they want their children not to suffer and they will go to great lengths - sometimes very unwise ones, including insisting on loving unworthy and dangerous men - to make that happen.

ANNETTE LAWSON

London W9