Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism was honestly an absolutely brutal read. I am very selective about the kinds of heavy trauma and triggering content I expose myself to these days. I don't run from it all, but I don't drown myself in it to the point of exhaustion like I used to (and used to believe I had to.) The reason this book made the cut is that I believe it adds something important to the general discourse around abuse, sexual violence, punishment, and imprisonment outside of the current way these things are often framed.
The book began as Leigh Goodmark's attempted project at working with incarcerated victims to create a book together about their stories. Maryland's Correctional Department squashed the idea and the participants agreed that Goodmark should tell their stories for them. Much of the book is just that- telling the stories of criminalized survivors of violence who either retaliated violently against abusers or were forced to break the law by them. This is what made the book so difficult. You can't really have this discussion without talking about what happened to these women. I actually would have loved to see the book written by them in a more memoir format. But, I also wonder how much the scholarly nature of this book allowed me enough detachment to make it through.
The reason I say that this adds something important is that I have been around a lot of various processes, legal and not, regarding abuse and sexual violence. There is an urge on the part of those helping survivors to paint them as angels and those who abused them as the opposite, both of them existing in some one dimensional war with one another. This is well intentioned, but fails immediately when the survivor does something human- making a mistake, showing a flaw, or even just doing something strange or non-normative. Goodmark discusses the ways that survivors can both be victims of violence and also have flaws and take actions that may or may not be defensible morally or legally. I am not saying that this has never been done- people have discussed this for as long as I can remember. But, in more mainstream systemic settings like law and academia, many people need this.
The parts of the book that were slightly easier to make it through was Goodmark's detailing and analysis of prison and criminal (in)justice systems. Again, it is not that no one has ever discussed this, but the combination of topics mixed with these womens own words is an important collection of ideas that makes them more salient and urgent. Goodmark shows just how much the system is stacked against survivors, punishing them for the abuse they suffered, often after the same system ignored their pleas for help. It punishes the victims of trafficking and it punishes women who act in self defense. Issues of race, gender, and sexuality also play very large roles in who is believed and how women are characterized.
Goodmark makes a strong effort to include information about transgender people in these systems. It was refreshing to see this kind of inclusion in a legal text because these experiences are so often forgotten. I did find her overall analysis of non-cis/het relationships to be lacking. There is one very brief mention of a lesbian woman's horrific experience through abuse by her partner and then the system's criminalization of her. But, I would have liked to see more discussion about same gender (or perceived as such) relationships and how the system will often treat these instances of violence in differently screwed up ways. It also is important in general for those of us in these communities to remember our communities' own capacities for violence- that it is not limited to straight people or hetero partnerships.
The last section of the book offers important criticisms of prison-centered, reformist, non-solutions to these problems, showing how they strengthen rather than disrupt the system. There is also a small discussion of solutions that are based in abolition. This is a good section, but it likely could have been longer. However, thinking of the author's description of the idea for the book, it makes sense that it's more focused on sharing experiences rather than a handbook of solutions (despite the byline which the author may not have chosen.)
There were a couple of things that I would have liked more of her thoughts on. I agree with pretty much everything she discusses. I agree that abuse and violence create situations where victims have to take criminalized action. However, the argument that abuse is a reasoning for an action seems like it could backfire (and already does.) We regularly see abusers turn around and accuse victims and in lgbtq circles or in unexpected power dynamic relationships (a woman abusing a man, a disabled person abusing an abled person, etc,) this can really make those outside the situation struggle to understand it. It also could be said that some abusers abuse because they were also abused. In cis/het partnerships, there is an obvious power dynamic and the abuse often goes in one direction, but not always. In many LGBTQ relationships, gender roles are more complicated. I am not entirely sure what my exact question is. Having seen radical accountability efforts range in everything from very clear cut to extremely confusing, I am curious about where one draws the line in these arguments. I am also curious if Goodmark has opinions on how to stop the abusers. Goodmark obviously is pro-abolition, so what does the other side of the solution look like with violent men (and others?) And, how do we wade through muddier waters where accusations are flying in multiple directions? Again, this is not the thesis of the book, just things I thought of regularly that I would like to pick her brain about.
Overall, Imperfect Victims should be read with care, but also should be given your attention if you're up for it. This is especially true for people who have not survived abuse and/or the prison system and for those who have any role in the legal process. The information in this book is hidden from most people in the USA who get their information from legal and crime dramas or terrible local news segments. I am grateful for all of the women who shared the stories included in this book and I hope that all of them who are still surviving get to live the rest of their lives with as little suffering as can be possible in this awful punitive system.
This was also posted to my goodreads.
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