More Than Victims: Battered Women, the Syndrome Society, and the Law » (1)

In More Than Victims, Donald Downs offers a sympathetic and powerful analysis of the problems attending the use of battered-woman syndrome as a legal defense, ultimately revealing how the syndrome's logic actually harms those it is trying to protect. A persuasive account of how constitutional freedom and individual justice can be threatened by current legal standards, this thorough yet accessible work presents a dramatic rethinking of the criminal justice system.

"More Than Victims is a powerful step in the right direction. Women as well as men need to be protected from violence, and women, in particular, require better understanding of their sometimes oppressive situations. But they also need to be able to participate fully in the discourse of politics and citizenship. Downs offers a solution that helps to make both possible."—Teresa Godwin Phelps, Review of Politics

"Downs has written an important book on a subject that deserves more of our attention."— Susan Mezey, Law and Politics Book Review

"Comprehensive and compelling. [Downs] demonstrates a masterful grasp of the complex legal and philosophical issues implicated in domestic violence cases."—Annette DeMichele, New York Law Journal

Linda Gordon

Downs, a pragmiatically libertarian political scientist, is by no means unfriendly to the campaign abainst violence against women, nor edoes he minimize the problem...Instead, he proposes a thoughtful use of existing self-defense laws to make it fit the actual situation of battered women. -- The Nation