Among the readers of our journal this month will be both abusers and those who have been abused by people close to them. Throwing the spotlight on this difficult issue is one that people still have trouble with, and obtaining reliable data is still elusive. One of our research reports this month, on “Sexual assault among North Carolina women”, and the linked editorial taking a more global perspective, try to do just that. If the lower limits of the estimates of women reporting physical violence from their male partners are anywhere near accurate (20%–50%), it is a shocking indictment of the way in which men are socialised around the world and of our unwillingness to take effective remedial action. We need more action-orientated work in this area, and we might begin …