This letter is in response to two articles recently published in the Journal (26 November 2004 issue; http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/117-1206/) dealing with violence against women in New Zealand.

Neither of these articles deal with the cause of this violence, which in most cases relates to events within the home. The matter is of such serious consequence, especially to the children of the home, that every effort should made to investigate the causes, and the possible ways in which it may be eliminated or minimised.

I thought that the authors would welcome some kind of dialogue in that direction, but to my surprise, apart from an initial note acknowledging interest in the articles, there has been no reply to letters properly addressed to Ms Janet Fanslow, Social and Community Health, University of Auckland, who is cited as dealing with the correspondence on one of the articles.

It is perhaps expected that a scientific publication like the NZMJ would encourage debate on such important issues, especially if it thought that the articles may not be soundly based.