What do you think?
Rate this book
Insult to Injury: Rethinking our Responses to Intimate Abuse
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 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.
The evidence turns up some surprising facts about the complexities of intimate abuse, facts that run against mainstream 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.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published July 14, 2003
About the author
Linda G. Mills
6 booksDr. Linda G. Mills is Professor of Social Work, Public Policy and Law affiliated with the NYU Silver School of Social Work.
For Dr. Mills' academic profile, see: http://socialwork.nyu.edu/our-faculty...
For Dr. Mills' academic profile, see: http://socialwork.nyu.edu/our-faculty...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 19, 2022
The domestic violence campaigning field, as it stands, is counter productive and has led to the implementing of measures which have been, mostly, nothing but failures. This shouldn't surprise us. As Linda G. Mills reminds us here, this is due to two factors:
-first, contrary to the dogma peddled by most women organisations and lobbies, domestic abuse is not a 'gendered crime' (women do abuse their male partners as much as male abuse their female ones, and with the same level of toxicity and violence -yes, even physical...);
-then, because we tend to perceive women in abusive relationships as being 'hapless victims' only (some are, but not all -far from that!) and so we tend, when trying to help them, to disempower them by patronising over their situations, in attitudes which might be well intended but are in fact roads to hell.
Linda G. Mills firmly rejects the gendered view of abuse (and patriarchy given as a caricatural reason to explain it, then). Yet, this is not a book about men being sole victims of domestic violence, the so-called 'battered husbands' or whatever the terminology is. This is a book, mostly, about women who are sole victims of domestic abuse, and, most importantly -because far more common- women who are perpetrating abuse as much as they are victims of it (so-called 'bidirectional abuse', or 'mutual combat'). How do we help them?
As it is: we don't.
'Insult to Injury' relies on analyses of 'solutions' which were implemented in the USA, and, so, can act as a lesson to readers elsewhere. In the USA indeed, in order to tackle domestic violence, feminists (what she calls 'mainstream feminists') have been pushing for mandatory arrests and prosecutions of offenders. This has led to several things. First, abusive women, as a result, were obviously arrested too -a twist that the neo-feminists, claiming that women cannot abuse (!) certainly didn't expect! Most importantly, it has led to a decrease in the number of cases being reported, not to a tackling of the issue. How come?!
The problem, of course, is as well known as it is conveniently well ignored: the fact is, most victims don't want to leave their abusers, they just want the abuse to stop. As such, knowing that, should they call the police, their abusers would be arrested (something many abused women feel would aggravate their situation, not improve it) victims, then, just don't call the cops anymore. The problem has in fact spilled over even to the medical professions, whereas many medical practitioners are, now, not reporting as they should the concerns they might have regarding domestic incidents, as such reporting would, indeed, lead to the justice system being involved that is, something that the victims themselves don't want. Here's a cruel irony: in wanting to help abused victims by bringing about tough punishments against abusers, feminist organisations have, on the contrary, deprived them of a voice, dismissed their wishes and concerns, and, in the end, worsen the problem!
Bidirectional abuse is also of particular concern (not least because it is, in fact, the commonest form of domestic abuse), yet is, here too, something which has been dismissed purely on ideological grounds. As the author shows, though, victimising women who perpetrate abuse and violence while, on the other hand, treating their male partners as the sole problem is everything but helpful. For a start, it contributes nothing to resolve the toxic interpersonal dynamic within such couples, and she warns here professionals about transference and countertransference in chapters that many of our 'femocrats' (that I won't name here, but are aplenty in the UK where I live...) ought to read if they ever care about being professional and efficient...
All in all, then, for those familiar with Erin Pizzey's work, the women who founded the first women shelter ever and had acknowledged just such issues (that most women in abusive relationships are not 'disempowered' but abusive too) it picks where she had left, by offering solutions into helping them. Linda G. Mills, for instance, doesn't believe that we will resolve it all by relying on a harshly punitive criminal system, disempowering people crossing its path, and mirroring the ideological dogma of the 'mainstream feminist'. She, on the contrary, advocates for various forms of intervention programs based not only on restorative justice, but, most importantly, that look at such interpersonal dynamics holistically that is, take into account the prevalence and impact of violence perpetrated by women.
For anyone concerned about such a societal issue, then, this is a must read.
-first, contrary to the dogma peddled by most women organisations and lobbies, domestic abuse is not a 'gendered crime' (women do abuse their male partners as much as male abuse their female ones, and with the same level of toxicity and violence -yes, even physical...);
-then, because we tend to perceive women in abusive relationships as being 'hapless victims' only (some are, but not all -far from that!) and so we tend, when trying to help them, to disempower them by patronising over their situations, in attitudes which might be well intended but are in fact roads to hell.
Linda G. Mills firmly rejects the gendered view of abuse (and patriarchy given as a caricatural reason to explain it, then). Yet, this is not a book about men being sole victims of domestic violence, the so-called 'battered husbands' or whatever the terminology is. This is a book, mostly, about women who are sole victims of domestic abuse, and, most importantly -because far more common- women who are perpetrating abuse as much as they are victims of it (so-called 'bidirectional abuse', or 'mutual combat'). How do we help them?
As it is: we don't.
'Insult to Injury' relies on analyses of 'solutions' which were implemented in the USA, and, so, can act as a lesson to readers elsewhere. In the USA indeed, in order to tackle domestic violence, feminists (what she calls 'mainstream feminists') have been pushing for mandatory arrests and prosecutions of offenders. This has led to several things. First, abusive women, as a result, were obviously arrested too -a twist that the neo-feminists, claiming that women cannot abuse (!) certainly didn't expect! Most importantly, it has led to a decrease in the number of cases being reported, not to a tackling of the issue. How come?!
The problem, of course, is as well known as it is conveniently well ignored: the fact is, most victims don't want to leave their abusers, they just want the abuse to stop. As such, knowing that, should they call the police, their abusers would be arrested (something many abused women feel would aggravate their situation, not improve it) victims, then, just don't call the cops anymore. The problem has in fact spilled over even to the medical professions, whereas many medical practitioners are, now, not reporting as they should the concerns they might have regarding domestic incidents, as such reporting would, indeed, lead to the justice system being involved that is, something that the victims themselves don't want. Here's a cruel irony: in wanting to help abused victims by bringing about tough punishments against abusers, feminist organisations have, on the contrary, deprived them of a voice, dismissed their wishes and concerns, and, in the end, worsen the problem!
Bidirectional abuse is also of particular concern (not least because it is, in fact, the commonest form of domestic abuse), yet is, here too, something which has been dismissed purely on ideological grounds. As the author shows, though, victimising women who perpetrate abuse and violence while, on the other hand, treating their male partners as the sole problem is everything but helpful. For a start, it contributes nothing to resolve the toxic interpersonal dynamic within such couples, and she warns here professionals about transference and countertransference in chapters that many of our 'femocrats' (that I won't name here, but are aplenty in the UK where I live...) ought to read if they ever care about being professional and efficient...
All in all, then, for those familiar with Erin Pizzey's work, the women who founded the first women shelter ever and had acknowledged just such issues (that most women in abusive relationships are not 'disempowered' but abusive too) it picks where she had left, by offering solutions into helping them. Linda G. Mills, for instance, doesn't believe that we will resolve it all by relying on a harshly punitive criminal system, disempowering people crossing its path, and mirroring the ideological dogma of the 'mainstream feminist'. She, on the contrary, advocates for various forms of intervention programs based not only on restorative justice, but, most importantly, that look at such interpersonal dynamics holistically that is, take into account the prevalence and impact of violence perpetrated by women.
For anyone concerned about such a societal issue, then, this is a must read.
August 26, 2010
Goodread's star system sums this up well. "It was okay." It has ideas that should be brought up for sure. At the same time, its... well... You'll have to read it.
Want to Read
September 17, 2009I am hoping this will give me some new ideas/perspectives to contemplate.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews