Book Review: Battered women doing time: Injustice in the criminal justice system

• Author: Colby Lynne Valentine
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016814534682
• Published date: 01 September 2014
• Date: 01 September 2014
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

devastation, attracted growing media attention and all three were linked to meth use, meth produc-

tion, or both. Criminal justice agencies fueled the scare amid concerns they would lose resources

as the crack cocaine crisis subsided. The author shows that public concern about meth had only a

modest association with the objective reality of the problem.

The book closes with Chapter 8, ‘‘New Panics, New Approaches,’’ in which the author spec-

ulates about drug panics yet to come citing bath salts as one candidate. The chapter also recaps

the shift in perceptions of methamphetamine from medicine to drug, reminding the reader of the

many occasions in which drug controls created problems more serious than those they were

designed to address. Finally, the chapter makes arguments for an increased focus on demand

reduction and harm reduction in drug policy.

Although Meth Mania is ostensibly about methamphetamine, it is also an excellent primer on

the way in which more general drug policies emerge and change over time. Time and again, efforts

to deal with the drug problem have themselves created new problems. As the author notes, there is

nothing inherently good or evil about any drug. What matters is the context in which it is used and

the way it is perceived by the public.

Schneider, R. Z. (2014).

Battered women doing time: Injustice in the criminal justice system. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

153 pp. $55.00 (Hardcover), ISBN 978-1935049791

Reviewed by: Colby Lynne Valentine, Dominican College, Orangeburg, NY, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016814534682

A major issue surrounding the study of victimization is the strong association between victim and

offender. This intimately intertwined relationship cannot be ignored especially when trying to under-

stand the complexity of abused women and what led them to incarceration. Rachel Zimmer Schnei-

der’s Battered Women Doing Time: Injustice in the Criminal Justice System brings attention to the

various issues surrounding imprisoned battered women and what can be done to help domestic vio-

lence victims before they take their abuser’s life, how to improve the way women are treated within

the criminal justice system, and how to better serve women as they reenter society.

Schneider sets the stage for her research by giving attention to the history of abuse and mistreat-

ment in America. Inmate partner violence was once considered a private matter and treated infor-

mally by the police. The Women’s Movement in the 1970s focused on violence against women

and helped introduce self-defense laws for women, specifically Battered Woman Syndrome

(BSW) as a defense for a woman against her abuser. However, the legal system did not accept

this defense for sometime and Ohio was the last state to allow expert testimony on BWS, which

set off a mass clemency review for all incarcerated battered women in the state. Schneider, thus,

investigates formerly imprisoned battered women who were involved with the clemency move-

ment in Ohio in the 1990s. Her research goes beyond previous studies by giving a voice to not only

women who were granted clemency during this time but also those who applied for clemency and

were denied.

The 23 interviews conducted by Schneider portray the indescribable pain abused women endure

and her writing gives each victim a voice to share their story. She first focuses on their life prior to

prison. Her research unfol ds a consistent occ urrence of childh ood abuse or dysfun ction, which

342 Criminal Justice Review 39(3)