Decriminalizing Domestic Violence asks the crucial, yet often
overlooked, question of why and how the criminal legal system became
the primary response to intimate partner violence in the United
States. It introduces readers, both new and well versed in the
subject, to the ways in which the criminal legal system harms rather
than helps those who are subjected to abuse and violence in their
homes and communities, and shares how it drives, rather than deters,
intimate partner violence. The book examines how social, legal, and
financial resources are diverted into a criminal legal apparatus that
is often unable to deliver justice or safety to victims or to prevent
intimate partner violence in the first place. Envisioned for both
courses and research topics in domestic violence, family violence,
gender and law, and sociology of law, the book challenges readers to
understand intimate partner violence not solely, or even primarily,
as a criminal law concern but as an economic, public health,
community, and human rights problem. It also argues that only by
viewing intimate partner violence through these lenses can we develop
a balanced policy agenda for addressing it. At a moment when we are
examining our national addiction to punishment, Decriminalizing
Domestic Violence offers a thoughtful, pragmatic roadmap to real
reform.
