Insult to Injury: Rethinking our Responses to Intimate Abuse [Hardcover]

Linda G. Mills (Author), Linda Mills (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0691096392 | ISBN-13: 978-0691096391 | Publication Date: August 2003

Locking up men who beat their partners sounds like a tremendous improvement over the days when men could hit women with impunity and women fearing for their lives could expect no help from authorities. But does our system of requiring the arrest, prosecution, and incarceration of abusers lessen domestic violence or help battered women? In this already controversial but vitally important book, we learn that the criminal justice system may actually be making the problem of domestic violence worse. Looking honestly at uncomfortable facts, Linda Mills makes the case for a complete overhaul and presents a promising alternative.

The evidence turns up some surprising facts about the complexities of intimate abuse, facts that run against mainstream assumptions: The current system robs battered women of what power they do hold. Perhaps as many as half of women in abusive relationships stay in them for strong cultural, economic, religious, or emotional reasons. Jailing their partners often makes their situations worse. Women are at least as physically violent and emotionally aggressive as are men toward women, and women's aggression is often central to the dynamic of intimate abuse.

Informed by compelling evidence, personal experience, and what abused women themselves say about their needs, Mills proposes no less than a fundamentally new system. Addressing the real dynamics of intimate abuse and incorporating proven methods of restorative justice, Mills's approach focuses on healing and transformation rather than shame or punishment. Already the subject of heated controversy, Insult to Injury offers a desperately needed and powerful means for using what we know to reduce violence in our homes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a bold new book guaranteed to cause a stir among mainstream feminists as well as among mental health and law-enforcement professionals, Mills exposes the limitations and shortcomings of the current approaches toward domestic violence. Although activists have helped get domestic abuse on the criminal justice map, Mills, a professor of both law and social work at NYU, asserts that their strategies have a tendency to ignore the racial, ethnic and religious complexities of domestic violence. In some cases, she argues, current policies may even exacerbate the problem. For example, by failing to recognize the individual needs of women in abusive relationships, "mandatory arrest" policies may strip women of their agency, thus perpetuating their role as helpless victims. Mills also challenges the axioms upon which the existing theoretical model is predicated (namely, that abuse is caused by patriarchy and sexism), and she demonstrates how such assumptions create a static, one-sided view that runs contrary to the dynamic, shifting and cyclical reality of intimate abuse. In one of her most provocative statements, Mills asserts that the current simplistic view may be motivated by "countertransference reactions of mainstream feminists and some helping professionals" who have themselves suffered abuse. Women can be as aggressive as men, she points out, and regardless of gender a child who endures violence is three times more likely to become violent as an adult. While she agrees that perpetrators should be held accountable, her new paradigm eschews punishment in favor of a "restorative justice" approach, which encourages dialogue in a counseling group called the Intimate Circle of Abuse (ICA). Mills's hope is that, in ICA, couples will begin to understand their narratives of abuse, and equip themselves with the skills necessary to prevent future recurrences. Hers is a system both inclusive and liberating; whether it is idealistic remains to be seen.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A bold new book guaranteed to cause a stir among mainstream feminists as well as among mental health and law-enforcement professionals.
(Publishers Weekly )

Drawing both on research and on her own experience in the field, Mills concludes that the conventional feminist paradigm of domestic violence as a form of patriarchal oppression is woefully inadequate. . . . [Mills's] message needs to be heard by politicians, judges, prosecutors and many others. It took the 'mainstream' feminists about 30 years to establish their monopoly on the public debate about domestic violence. Mills's book may be the first step in dismantling that monopoly.
(Cathy Young Boston Globe )

The real strength of Mill's book lies in her repudiation of a one-size-fits-all approach to domestic violence. . . . As a challenge tocurrent dogma, it is a breath of fresh air. One can only hope that its alternative message will be heard in the courses and seminars held across the country to educate counselors, law enforcement, and judges about domestic violence.
(Cathy Young Reason )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691096392
• ISBN-13: 978-0691096391
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,355,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bravo -- Courageous, November 12, 2003

By 

Edward Kelly (Fargo, ND United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Insult to Injury: Rethinking our Responses to Intimate Abuse (Hardcover)

An honest and courageous look at how despite good intentions, feminist tunnel vision and success at obtaining complete criminalization of intimate abuse and violence has ignored the dynamics of such abuse. The feminist author/social worker/law school professor powerfully condemns the politically correct dogma that only men's violence warrants attention and calls for reflection by everyone on their own contribution. The one-sided view of intimate violence has resulted in frequently making the lives of women (and men) worse and in more rather than less violence, particularly for minorities. She calls for a creative solution along the lines of the restorative justice used by South Africa that would deescalate the war between men and women, result in less violence, and could lead to improved intimate relations for all of us. The question that is unanswered is if "the entrenched and very powerful" feminists (quoting Archbishop Desmond Tutu) will be willing to give up the power that their simple but inaccurate portrayal and widespread legal assumption of only men as violent has given the feminist movement.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insult to Injury, March 16, 2006

By 

B. Nelson (Bellingham, Wa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Insult to Injury: Rethinking our Responses to Intimate Abuse (Hardcover)

I bought it for a college class and found it pretty interesting to read. If you would like to read about the ineffectiveness of the criminal justice system towards domestic violence, this is a great book.

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A breath of reality enters 'women's studies', April 26, 2005

By 

Goldie Berg (Milwaukee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Insult to Injury: Rethinking our Responses to Intimate Abuse (Hardcover)

I don't agree with reviewers who say Ms. Mills 'doesn't get' feminism. The problem with people who spend their careers 'getting' feminism (which judging from some of her jargon may include Mills) is that they tend not to 'get' anything else. I think some of the previous reviewers are likely to have this problem. They can quote us 10 types of patriarchy, but have no suggestions for how women can juggle professional and personal satisfaction, or other thing that actually matter.

Unfortunately, most people who laugh at the '10 types of patriarchy; argument leave the conversation right after that, denying women the insight of someone who sees the idiocy of the 'mainstream feminist' approach. Enter Mills, who has clearly spent plenty of time soaking in the petri dish of elite academic feminism but is sharp enough to realize that helping women get what they want starts with listening to them.

In this book, she addresses the unspeakable fact that domestic violence often involves two parties - both are often unhappy, but both are still there. It's earth-shatteringly obvious, but earth-shattering all the same. Mainstream feminists can't bear to face it, but the fact is that often abused women not only stay in abusive relationships and try to keep the cops from being called, but then bail their partners out and refuse to press charges.

You can wonder why, but Mills deals with a bigger question - how can the criminal justice system handle domestic violence in a way that addresses the actual needs of the parties? This doesn't mean sending women back to the wolves, but just realizing that they can speak for themselves and must be listened to.

Contrary to mainstream feminist orthodoxy, the 'violent stranger' approach to domestic violence has not done anything to make women safer, and it needs to be re-examined. I haven't found anyone else talking about this but Mills. If you're at all interested in domestic violence (as a serious problem to be addressed, not a grievance to flagellate the patriarchy over), you have to read this book. Even if you're not particularly interested in domestic violence, but are interested in seeing a discussion about 'women's issues' that deals with issues that actually matter to real women - as opposed to leftist academics married to male versions of themselves - you will find this book enlightening and intellectually exciting.