Book review: Decriminalizing Domestic Violence: A Balanced Policy Approach to Intimate Partner Violence
| Author | Miriam Shovel |
| DOI | 10.1177/0269758019884811 |
| Published date | 01 January 2020 |
| Date | 01 January 2020 |
Book reviews
Leigh Goodmark
Decriminalizing Domestic Violence: A Balanced Policy Approach to Intimate Partner Violence
University of California Press: Oakland, California, USA, 2018; xþ204 pp.; ISBN 9780520295575 (paperback.).
Reviewed by: Miriam Shovel, University of Cambridge, UK
DOI: 10.1177/0269758019884811
In Decriminalizing Domestic Violence, Leigh Goodmark critiques the United States’ reliance
on a criminal justice system (CJS) response tointimate partner violence (IPV). After tracing
how the CJS came to be so dominant, Goodmark provides four alternative lenses through which
to understand IPV, presenting IPV as an economic (Chapter 2), public health (Chapter 3), com-
munity (Chapter 4), and human rights (Chapter 5) problem. Chapter 6 concludes with suggestions
for potential laws and policies which could be enacted if the U.S. were to adopt these lenses.
Recommendations are informed by available research, though this is limited in some areas. Ulti-
mately, Goodmark is not arguing for full decriminalisation. Instead, she is calling on policymakers
to ‘rethink the current criminal regime’ given that criminalisation disproportionately harms
the most marginalised (p. 143). By focusing on victims’ needs and wishes, and meaningfully
embracing intersectionality, Goodmark claims we can achieve ‘a balanced policy approach’ that
is less reliant on the CJS, and may finally succeed in reducing the prevalence of IPV in the United
States (p. 11).
The introduction and first chapter establish the context of current U.S. policy on IPV, providing
a brief history of police responses to IPV, the influence of the feminist antiviolence movement,
and the resulting criminalisation of IPV. Goodmark does well to acknowledge the logic
of criminalisation, given chronic underenforcement and the normative importance
of condemning IPV, whilst also providing compelling critiques of such an approach. Rather than
narrowly focusing on IPV, Goodmark highlights the co-occurrence of criminalisation of IPV with
a general rise in mass incarceration – an important point often missed in the discussion
of IPV policies. Borrowing from anticarceral feminist critiques of overcriminalisation, Goodmark
foregrounds the disproportionate impact of incarceration on marginalised peoples (especially
women and men of colour), as well as the more general point that criminalisation cannot solve
social problems. After outlining the benefits and critiques of criminalisation, Chapter 1 provides
a theoretical basis for decriminalisation based on four concerns: harm minimisation, deterrence,
cost-benefit analysis and alternative prevention measures. This provides a useful framework
on which to judge the policy suggestions made in later chapters.
Approaching IPV as an economic problem (Chapter 2) encourages policymakers to consider
the economic costs of IPV to the victim, employers, the local community and the wider economy.
An economic focus also highlights the practical barriers faced by victims, such as finding
International Review of Victimology
2020, Vol. 26(1) 135–139
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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