Structural Violence: Hidden Brutality in the Lives of Women

by Joshua M. Price

Challenges the notions that “violence against women” is synonymous with “domestic violence” and that violence affects all women equally. Structural Violence seeks to redraw the conventional map of violence against women. In order to understand violence as a fundamentally heterogeneous phenomenon, it is essential to go beyond interpersonal partner violence and analyze the workings of institutional and structural violence. Self-help books, some shelters, the courts, federal and state legislation, empirical studies, therapeutic models, and even some mainstream feminist polemics presume that all women face the same kind of violence. This assumption masks violence that does not conform to the imagined norm, such as violence against women who are sex workers, lesbians, homeless, and/or undocumented. Joshua M. Price’s exploration of these issues is based on several years of research involving participant-observation in domestic violence courts and extensive interviews with activists, advocates, incarcerated women, and women who have faced various forms of violence. Both conceptually and methodologically, the book challenges narrow notions of violence against women and demonstrates implications for judicial intervention and other forms of public involvement.

193 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 2012

Reviews

[Andrea Herrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent exploration of structural violence against women, really clear and incisive interrogation of dominant paradigms of abuse. Length doesn't necessarily indicate quality, but the chapter on queer women and violence was half as long as all other chapters and suffered from a somewhat truncated/shallow analysis.