Book Review: Insult to Injury: Rethinking Our Responses to Intimate Abuse

• Date: 01 March 2005
• Author: Douglas L. Yearwood
• DOI: 10.1177/0887403404268420
• Published date: 01 March 2005
• Subject Matter: Articles

CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY REVIEW / March 2005BOOK REVIEW

Book Review

Insult to Injury: Rethinking Our Responses to Intimate Abuse, by

Linda G. Mills.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003. 192

pp. Cloth, $19.95.

DOI: 10.1177/0887403404268420

Going where few have gone before, and many dare not go in today’scur-

rent political environment, Linda Mills bravely challenges the current ide-

ology surrounding domestic violence and its etiology, dynamics, and the

manner in which the criminal justice system currently addresses this social

problem. Like a modern day Columbus or Galileo, Mills guides the reader

through the hazy and often murky political waters that have been comman-

deered by a feminist agenda that has consequently and often incorrectly

shaped society’s views on, and more important its response to, domestic

violence programs and policy.

The author directly attacks and challenges many of the mainstream femi-

nists’ commonly held (mis)perceptions that have become accepted dogma

when developing domestic violence policies for managing offenders, shap-

ing how society views victims, and how the system erroneously seeks to

help victims by removing them from the arrest and court disposition deci-

sions. Mills cogently argues that interpersonal violence is intergenerational

and often varies by race and religious preference, a fact that is ignored by

policy makers who persist in defining, and treating, all domestic violence

cases and offenders as if they are identical. Mills sharply criticizes the cur-

rent belief that all domestic violence victims suffer from trauma or learned

helplessness and instead advocates for empowering these victims: an

empowerment that includes restoring their voices and discretion over their

respective cases versus the feminist practice that seeks to act in the best

interest of the victims by telling them what is in their own best interest,

because their abuse has rendered them incapable of rational thought.

The author also reminds the readers what they intuitively know, that all

relationships are fluid and dynamic, and the interactions within these rela-

tionships operate on a two-way street. Consequently, she espouses the view

that victims are not always manipulated or controlled but can and do exert

115

Criminal Justice Policy Review, Volume 16, Number 1, March 2005115-117

© 2005 Sage Publications