I'm with you on that -- hence my comment above. I don't think it's fair to claim it's a cultural or ethnic issue. If anything, it's a "culture of violence" issue. The fear can be made worse if you come from a culture where there is already an ingrained fear of authority (police, army, etc.) but I don't think that's really the issue, at the core of it all. Really, the issue is that the abuser has convinced his victim that no one will help her and that she is going to receive the same treatment at the hands of others. As I said in my comment above -- I'm canadian, with multiple graduate degrees, and I was in that situation. Poster child for Stockholm Syndrome. I come from as liberal a background as one can imagine... and I STILL fell for it. I was absolutely convinced, after a year of psychological and physical warfare (torture? Yeah, let's call it what it was) that if I asked for help I would only be harmed. My first response to police officers during the whole legal phase of the process that followed was total distrust and fear. They said it was not all that uncommon, either. I think people are way too quick to judge other cultures and claim they're "behind the times"... so MUCH goes on behind closed doors. We'd just like to believe it doesn't happen. The psychology of trauma and violence is frighteningly universal and knows no geographic or cultural boundaries.