"Me mother's bank and me nanan's, you know, support!": Women who left domestic violence in England and issues of informal support

Attention to domestic violence in developed countries has focused on agency responses. However, domestic violence is a widespread and long-term proble m which agencies alone will be unable to resolve. This article draws on doc toral research, combining a community study with ethnographic research, to explore the experiences of 20 white working-class women who left violent re lationships. Empirically, the research shows that systematic continued viol ence was suffered by one third of the women, for which effective police int ervention is essential. However, also revealed was the paucity of women's i nformal support and support networks. Women lacked resources along many dim ensions, to the extent that they formed a distinct socially excluded group. The conclusion drawn is that it is now vital to think about ways of enhanc ing informal support for women experiencing and/or leaving domestic violenc e and one way explored in this study was through the networking of women's friendships. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.