Abstract
Battered Women Doing Time: Injustice in the Criminal Justice System is a relatively brief text focusing on the incarceration of battered women who kill their intimate partners and the subsequent criminal justice process through which some women are granted clemency and freed, while others are denied clemency and remain imprisoned. Rachel Zimmer Schneider examines the long-term effects of clemency (granted and denied) among incarcerated women in the early 1990s.
The book draws on a unique collection of three data sets that encompass both primary and secondary data. All data were drawn from in-depth interviews conducted with a total of 23 women incarcerated in Ohio for killing their abuser (in most cases, the abuser was an intimate partner although for three women, it was a parent). For the primary data, Schneider interviewed 16 formerly battered women in 2004–2005; four of these women had been granted clemency in 1990, while the remaining women had been denied clemency and remained incarcerated at the time of the interview. The secondary data sets included interviews with women who had received clemency in the early 1990s. Together, the three sets of interviews provide data on incarcerated battered women involved in the clemency movement in Ohio at three time points (1990; 1992–1994; 2004–2005); some of the women were interviewed at multiple times over the years.
Following the introductory chapter, which outlines the premise of the book, the majority of the text is thematically organized into chapters that provide the reader with an overview of the lives of battered women who kill their perpetrator: life prior to incarceration, victimization experiences leading up to the killing, prison life, and the clemency process. Disappointingly, a relatively small portion of the text is devoted to assessing the difference among women granted clemency and those denied clemency as well as synthesizing the unique findings of the research (a chapter each, respectively). For these reasons, the book does not appear to contribute a great deal to the development of new knowledge in this area.
In spite of these limitations, the book is clearly and engagingly written, illustrating key points with the women’s own words and stories. The text does an excellent job of describing the intersection of victimization, crime (specifically murder), and the criminal justice system. Throughout the book, Schneider provides robust examples and thoughtful discussions of important issues facing any incarcerated women. For example, she focuses on the describing the patterns of life span victimization experienced by the majority of the women who were interviewed, women’s revictimization within the criminal justice and prison systems, and the effects of criminal justice involvement on women’s lives after incarceration.
Although not the most critically written text, this book would nevertheless be extremely useful in providing undergraduate or graduate students with a solid understanding of important issues associated with intimate partner violence, justice-involved women, and how social policies and institutions affect individual’s lives and behaviors. The use of women’s personal narrative can also provide students with the valuable opportunity to engage in perspective taking. In total, this is a solid book that clearly has value as a tool for students seeking to learn more about the intersection of victimization and crime.