Book Review: Leigh Goodmark, Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism. University of California Press. 2023.

Abstract

Leigh Goodmark’s Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition, seems to rupture any idealistic views of a protective and just criminal legal system. Instead, Goodmark introduces readers to the nitty gritty underside of laws, policies, and legal processes put into place to protect the most vulnerable. In this work, Goodmark apprises readers of the cycle of victimization that survivors of violence are subjected to within the criminal justice realm. Offering true narratives and statistics along with eye-opening insights, Goodmark illustrates the means by which women, trans, and non-confirming individuals are subjected to criminalization by the justice system in the form of state interventions intended to protect them. This work pushes readers to challenge their perceptions of victims and offenders while asking them to embrace the idea that the justice system is inherently flawed. Goodmark, however, does not leave readers hopeless and empty-handed as she offers abolition feminism as the remedy to the institutionalized challenges faced by criminalized survivors. Imperfect Victims aims to give voice to victims of gender-based violence and dismantle the system that continues to victimize them.