There was a special on Dateline a few months back where they did an experiment in the park with a couple who was fighting. The actor playing the partner was screaming at her, she was cowering, he had her by the arm, etc. She was crying, begging him to stop, the whole nine. Out of allll the people who walked by, (mind you, they were in a busy park) only 3 people stopped and asked if the woman was ok. One guy actually went as far as to threaten the male. But the thing is, it's a highly awkward situation for anyone exposed to it, making it very difficult to act. Torog is right about his battered women's syndrome- even if you had done something, odds are she would have defended him... unfortunately a lot of emotionally unstable women feel it is their "duty" to "fix" these defective men in their life, most of the time that being due to exposure to a tumultuous male relationship (father, most of the time) growing up. It's really sad... and a lot of the time the woman doesn't realized it until it's too late.