Unreasonable Women: Three Stories of Violence, Imprisonment, and Extraordinary Survival

by Justine van der Leun

A groundbreaking account of how the legal system punishes those it purports to protect, told through the deeply reported stories of three unforgettable women

 When award-winning journalist Justine van der Leun first reported on the issue of criminalized survival, she was astonished to see how women were being imprisoned for protecting themselves against abuse. She wondered how often survivors are targeted for prosecution. To find out, she began an intensive, yearslong investigation—traveling coast to coast and collecting more than a thousand personal accounts from women’s prisons.

In Unreasonable Women, van der Leun tells the propulsive, shocking, and intimate stories of three extraordinary women, caught in the direst circumstances, who had to kill to survive. Tanisha is a Michigan sex worker and fledgling entrepreneur determined to help detectives solve a cold case, whatever the consequences. Jema is a softhearted factory worker from Missouri, struggling to keep her family together as she navigates an increasingly dangerous relationship. TC is a bold Californian trying, along with her mother, to escape generations of trauma—and a toxic family environment. Each woman was abused in childhood, only to find that abuse replicated in adulthood, until they were ultimately forced to make an impossible choice.

A work of literary reportage that reads like the most dynamic crime novel, Unreasonable Women is the result of seven years of intensive, unprecedented research and on-the-ground reporting in prisons across the United States. It is the story of women and violence in America—and a wake-up call about a system that would rather condemn a woman to life behind bars than face its failings. It is also the moving story of three women who find hope and humanity in the unlikeliest of places.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Feminism, History, Biography, Audiobook, Crime

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 2, 2026

About the author

Justine van der Leun is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including Unreasonable Women and We Are Not Such Things. She is also the host of the podcast Believe Her. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, New York Magazine, Harper’s, and The Guardian. Van der Leun has received fellowships from New America, the Emerson Collective, Type Media Center, and PEN America, among others. She lives in New York.

Reviews

[Traci Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is intense, thorough, tight, and so well reported. It’s a lot and very upsetting but it’s handled well. The author does a great job of presenting her subjects and the contradictions in her work/process. Very necessary.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is your nonfiction read of the year. I promise.
Women’s Prisons are full of abuse survivors. Women, who in self defense, committed an act of violence to survive and protect themselves or their loved ones from harm. To author and journalist, Justine van der Leun’s surprise, there was no data to back this up. So she decided to gather itself. She wrote to 10,000 women in prison across America, and received more than 1,000 letters back. She then hand coded those letters to understand what were the pathways to women in prison and their histories. Her responses showed at least 30% of women in prison for murder or manslaughter are criminalized survivors, meaning we are locking away thousands of women in prison for just trying to stay alive.

Through the stories of three women that stood out to her, we learn how many women end up in this very predicament. I was in awe while reading their stories. Leun humanizes these women by starting out sharing the commonality of their personal history which is filled with trauma and abuse. With this we understand that the failure of the system to protect women starts from birth and violence perpetrated against women by men is encoded in our country’s DNA. The depth of the storytelling, the historical context, the research, and the real life accounts documented in this book make it such an excellent, engaging and propulsive read.

I don’t know if I really gave much thought to how woman are criminalized for trying to survive, but this book really made me think about the seriousness of toxic masculinity and patriarchy. This one of the grave consequences of our lack of action against men who hurt women and children. This is hard, but necessary read and wake up call.

Let me know if you plan on picking this up!

[Holly Dyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book! This is a hard one to read but so important and I couldn't put it down. This book focuses on Tanisha, Jema, and TC, three women who were incarcerated for committing acts out of survival and protecting themselves. These women dealt with abusive relationships, child abuse, sexual abuse, poverty, and more. Their lives were threatened by these men and they committed necessary acts for their survival. However, because of the criminal justice system and the limited protections for women dealing with abuse, they are known as "criminalized survivors" and have to deal with lengthy prison sentences. Justine van der Leun also collected surveys from incarcerated women all over the country and over a number of years, to compile the stories and the statistics around criminalized survival for women.

The book is so well-reported and well-written, and it feels like the reader is right there with the women. I was pulled in from page one and so immersed throughout. I was rooting for these women and also had my heart in my throat. While there are some notes of hope, overall the book is exposing and criticizing the criminal justice system in allowing victims of domestic violence to be treated as criminals. The lack of protections and the loopholes are pretty enraging. This will be a standout read for me.

Thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for the ARC.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for choosing me to read and review this book. "Unreasonable Women" is an astounding, heartbreaking and an absolutely necessary book to read. These three women touched my heart. This world is so complicated, difficult and often unforgiving. Our legal system needs to be fixed. Everybody, please read this book.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook. This book is so good (and sad, heartbreaking, rage-inducing, etc). I had heard about a story like this in the news and I didn’t realize it’s so common. But, of course it is.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Male violence is so insidious. Even breaking free from it as a women is a punishable offense

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up because Josie Duffy Rice recommended it and I love her work covering the American criminal justice system. Oh man, this was one of the most brutally difficult books I have ever read but I also couldn’t put it down and read most of it on Saturday while hiding from the heat wave. Justine van der Leun spent many years corresponding with over a thousand women who were imprisoned for committing an act of violence in self defense against their abusers. But the book mainly focuses on three women, while also peppering in quotes from many others as well as their families and people involved with their cases. It’s a book about survival and about how the state perpetuates endless cycles of abuse. It’s incredibly well written and well reported. The author is also honest about the doubts and contradictions she felt while embarking on this work, but she makes sure to make these women and their stories the main focus throughout.

If you consider The New Jim Crow to be required reading (and you should), this book should be on your list as well. I hope its reach is vast and that it wins all of the awards.

[Alissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devastating follow-on read for those who appreciated Brian Goldstone's There is No Place for Us.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher, via Netgalley, for an advance e-galley for honest review.

This is infuriating, heartbreaking, and brutal to read, but the experiences of the women featured in the story and what they have endured in the name of survival is essential reading. The author's research into criminalized survival was inspired by the case of Nikki Addimando, and knowing that was what made me pick up this book, as I had read about that case in her sister's book and found it also essential and enraging. The women's experiences covered in this book happen in different decades, but this goes to further show that there has been far too little advancement in the criminal justice system's understanding of the effects of abuse and trauma.

[Lucy Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so good. Really tough subject matter…these women’s lives are absolutely harrowing. Van der Leun does some incredibly committed on the ground reporting, creating her own dataset about criminalized survival in the absence of one, and telling the story of criminalized survival through the stories of Tanisha, Jema and TC. She questions what she’s doing and acknowledges the potential issues/contradictions head-on which makes the book even better. Eye- opening and angering and so, so well done.

[vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was a lot of care put into this book: researching, selecting the subjects, plus crafting a story that is both engaging and pinpoints how criminalized survival as framed by the author is connected to gender and law history. I learned some new things, though this is a subject I’ve read a lot of books about. The women are flawed and make upsetting decisions, but also were traumatized, disbelieved, and stuck. Ultimately, I really wanted to learn more about these subjects, and the way the author weaves their lives with everything else is very well done.

[Raja Ashraf · Rating 5 out of 5]

After eagerly anticipating this book since discovering the Believe Her podcast, it did not disappoint. I couldn't put this book down. The research is incredibly impressive and important, but it was the writing and storytelling that had me hooked from page one. The subject matter is so compelling. 10/10

[Laura Flavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unreasonable Women: Three Stories of Violence, Imprisonment, and Extraordinary Survival by Justine van der Leun is a powerful and deeply researched work of literary journalism that examines the complicated realities of survival, justice, and the experiences of women navigating systems that often fail them.

Through the stories of Tanisha, Jema, and TC, the book brings attention to the difficult circumstances surrounding women who have experienced abuse, trauma, and impossible choices. Rather than presenting simple narratives, van der Leun explores the deeper questions surrounding accountability, protection, and how the legal system responds to survivors.

What makes Unreasonable Women stand out is the combination of investigative reporting and human-centered storytelling. The extensive research, emotional depth, and focus on overlooked voices create a compelling work that will resonate with readers interested in true crime, social justice, women’s issues, and criminal justice reform.

A strong choice for readers who appreciate investigative nonfiction, powerful personal stories, and books that challenge the way society understands justice and survival.

[Sian Phoenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking book with compelling story telling. The telling of the three main stories, with other anecdotes from survey respondents weaved in made for a powerful narrative.

[K.B. reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I asked Jacobsen what Tanisha should have done, back in 2005. “Her choice was she should die,” Jacobsen said. “Or prison. That’s it.””

This book was powerful, gut wrenching, informative, heart breaking, infuriating, and exactly the type of non-fiction that should be on everyone’s “must read” list. In the wake of The Epstein Files, sex trafficking, pedophilia, domestic violence and mental health epidemics, these are the eye opening real life stories that everyone needs to hear. While every one covers their eyes and wonders why all of the above crimes are so prevalent in our society, this is why. Violence against women is over looked and ignored and often the only way to escape is to be killed.

I hope this book gets the attention it deserves and I hope Tanisha does as well.

5 stars

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it would be easy for the harrowing stories of the three women in this book to blend into each other, but van der Leun does such an excellent job of weaving the stories together while still keeping the women distinct. The horrors that the women in this book experience are so unfathomable and upsetting, but reading about them never felt sensationalized or exploitative. An excellent — if triggering — book. Highly recommend if you have the stomach for it.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a tough book to read, as there are detailed explanations of abuse and violence, but it tells such an important and impactful story. Tanisha, Jema, and TC, along with thousands of other incarcerated women, are in dire circumstances and forced to make an impossible choice - to kill their abusers or know that they will likely die themselves. It’s clear from the writing that van der Leun cares so much about these women, and that we should too. She narrates the audiobook, and I recommend that format.

[Theresa L · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really, really recommend that people read this book. The subject matter is incredibly difficult to read through, but it is very well-written.

[Rebecca Kovalchik · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have worked in the criminal legal system (specifically community corrections) for over 8 years. The majority of my work has been with women, currently with survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. This book is an excellent account of the systemic failures faced by both women in the legal system and women in general, presented through powerful narrative and data-driven research. This book should be required reading for anyone working within the criminal legal system!

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I were a writer so I could adequately describe what a masterpiece this book is while also explaining how devastating it is. I can’t fathom how van der Leun managed to find the time to write this book let alone found the mental strength. It is so beautifully written yet heartbreaking all at the same time. It should be a required reading for all law students.

[Carla LaPine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an easy read but such an important. Criminalized survival is a real thing. This is a must read for anyone who cares about women and justice.

[Alissa BC · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very difficult read. It pretty much doesn’t get more challenging than this when it comes to reading about real life abuse, domestic violence, poverty, and survival. But the author writes in such a way that you feel compelled forward through the narrative. I felt invested in each of these three women’s lives, not because they are perfect but because they are so human, textured and real. Van der Leun writes unflinching about their lives from birth to the present day, including their experiences with the US justice system which she rightly interrogates without getting her readers lost in the details. The writing here is just pitch perfect. Pacing, length, details, tone, and syntax are all flawless. I was left saddened, enraged, and above all informed about how our justice and carceral systems treat women and why that matters.

[dalanceyreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is evident that Justine van der Leun has the passion and expertise needed to advocate for victims of abuse. In her book, she carefully follows three women and their experiences with the legal system in the United States. She identifies that “criminalized survival” is something these women have had to utilize in order to survive since early childhood.

She introduces humanity and dignity into the conversation of criminal justice specifically as it applies to women who are victims of abuse using self-defense as a means of reclaiming autonomy.

I couldn’t put down this book as I followed the lives of the three women that shared their survival stories. A meaningful book that was truly life-changing and eye-opening. A call to action that demands our attention, Unreasonable Women meticulously tells the story of women who’ve survived despite all odds stacked against them.

[Aspen Thorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Justine’s writing is not only incredibly impactful, but also so very eloquently articulate on this topic. These resilient women deserved so much more than they got. This research turned storytelling, is so important to be heard by all people and especially young women. Living in the current state of the world, having thorough and insightful knowledge on the criminalized survival of women, mothers and children in this country is so important I cannot emphasize it enough.

I am beyond impressed by Justine’s intensive research, knowledge, and drive to push this topic forward. I hope everyone gets a chance to read this as well as truly understand why this is such a cripplingly frustrating and cruel dynamic for so many women in this country and the world. While this may be a hard read it’s a real one.

♾️/5

[TriNai Voris · Rating 5 out of 5]

“women’s prisons are populated not only by abuse and assault survivors, but by people who have been imprisoned BECAUSE they are abuse and assault survivors. This phenomenon is often referred to as criminalized survival.”

This one hurt… The subject matter is tough and at times nauseating. Such a necessary book. Grateful to have read it.

[Vic · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most impactful books I’ve ever read. I cannot recommend it enough.

[Elsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A harrowing account of women who were “imperfect victims” of gender-based violence and the consequences they faced for fighting back. The author is an incredible storyteller, a profound witness and journalist, and a skilled conveyor of painful, confusing, and muddied stories, recounting them with the courage and integrity they deserve.

If a book will ever make you say, “God have mercy,” it’s this one.

Woven throughout the accounts are discussions of a flawed legal system, dysfunctional family systems, and both subtle and systematic discrimination faced by single mothers, people living below the poverty line, and Black women. The book also exposes how the legacy of racist laws and male-centered legal structures continues to shape outcomes today, contributing to stories of women who fought back against their abusers only to be disbelieved, deemed unreliable witnesses, unable to afford adequate legal representation, constrained by laws that failed to protect victims of sexual violence, and ultimately imprisoned.

This book is incredibly difficult to read—emotionally—but it is very important. It should be read with caution, as it includes many sensitive topics.

Thank you Netgalley for this read!

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Justine—thank you for writing this book and offering insight into how complex justice becomes when the very system meant to protect people instead fails them.
As a young journalist stepping into this career, I’ve already seen how easily stories of violence, death, and tragedy can become just another statistic—another headline to fill the day. The questions become: what will trend, what will drive engagement, what will hold attention long enough to matter?
But to me, real journalism exists in resisting that numbness. It means holding onto empathy while still telling the story—putting ourselves, however imperfectly, in the lives of others.
You do exactly that in this book. Thank you for giving these stories space to exist beyond headlines, and for centering them through the perspective of a survivor.
In reporting, there is an exchange that is rarely spoken about: journalists give a part of themselves to the people they interview, and in return they carry a portion of that grief. I believe that is what makes a tragedy feel truly told rather than simply reported.

[Sammi Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for everything you have done for women❤️‍🩹 Everyone needs to read this book.

[Vennesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three true stories of how women are taken advantage of in so many ways. Each woman tells about the childhood abuse that led to domestic violence that led to murder.