Insult to Injury (ebook)

Argumento de Insult to Injury (ebook)

"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

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

"What a breath of fresh air. [This book] takes on the entrenched and very powerful. Superb stuff. . . . Exhilarating."--Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"Here is a searching and spirited story of human intimacy as it sometimes descends into aggression: violence inflicted and vulnerability endured--a melancholy story told with thoughtfulness, with sensitivity, and with a brave willingness to consider the subtleties and ironies of affliction perpetrated and endured."--Robert Coles, Harvard University, editor of "DoubleTake" magazine, and author of The Secular Mind

"Mills is thoughtful, nuanced, and original in her analysis of intimate abuse. With compassionate insight, she reveals how insult can lead to injury and outlines a practical alternative path to healing and safety. "This is a feminist critique, and a survivor's, of a mandated one-size-fits-all approach to punishing domestic violence. Mills moves our thinking beyond unilateralism, beyond bilateralism, to a multilateral approach to repairing lives shattered by violence. It poses a profound challenge to existing orthodoxy and should spawn a generation of empirical research to refute, refine. and vindicate its analysis."--John Braithwaite, Australian National University

"Insult to Injury will change the public relationship to intimate violence: "Linda Mills mines the depths of our personal denial, challenging us to return to what we somehow already know. She'll take hits for the honesty--and the expectations it holds out to us. But she's done the long labor of real scholarship, building a sturdy bridge to these next dangerous steps of trust."--Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx

"In this book, Linda Mills generates a bold and provocative thesis. While some may disagree with her, her views must be taken into account in the conversation on domestic violence."--Phyllis Goldfarb, Boston College School of Law

"Mills's accomplishment is impressive and courageous. Clearly and even elegantly written, her book offers a way out of the current unproductive debate about the agency of women in abusive relationships."--Christine A. Littleton, Professor of Law and Chair, Women's Studies Programs, UCLA

"Mills is the right person to write this book, and she does an admirable job."--Richard Gelles, author of The Violent Home and The Book of David: How Preserving Families Can Cost Children's Lives

"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 Globe0Giving Thanks xi
Prologue 1
PART I: Rethinking Our Responses to Intimate Abuse
One: The Ground Zero of Intimate Abuse 19
Two: Mandatory Policies as Crime Reduction Strategies: Do They Work? 22
Three: Power over Women in Abusive Relationships 50
Four: Are Women as Aggressive as Men? 67
PART II: Fixing the Failures
Five: The Dynamic of Intimate Abuse 87
Six: Changing the System 101
Seven: Learning to Listen to Narratives of Intimate Abuse 119
Eight: A Better Way 134
Notes 149
Index 171