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Victimization by interpersonal violence has become a normative event for U.S. citizens. Nationwide investigations conducted during the last twenty years have documented the widespread prevalence of child physical abuse, child sexual abuse, incest, adolescent and adult-incident rape, domestic violence, and other crimes of violence (e.g., Russell, 1984; Wyatt, 1985; Koss, Gidycz, and Wiesniewski, 1987; National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, 1988; Boney-McCoy and Finkelhor, 1995). An equally ample literature has developed to document the potentially devastating consequences of these events. Research has established, for example, that victims can suffer lasting impairments in their physical, psychological, and interpersonal functioning (Browne and Finkelhor, 1986; Stein et al., 1988; Herman, 1992; Briere and Runtz, 1993). Those whose lives have been shattered by physical and sexual violence include an alarming number of women and children who have not found safe harbor even in their own homes (National Victims Center, 1992; Koss, 1993). Moreover, violence in the home and on the streets has become a social and public health problem that not only has direct, personal consequences for victims, but also entails substantial costs to the larger society. Violence and victimization by violence are implicated as both cause and