For Immediate Release
November 14, 2007

Contact:

Kara Tershel, (202) 662-9500

Associate Dean Deborah Epstein

WASHINGTON, D.C. - How is society faring in its efforts to assist battered women? What has been accomplished? And what more can be done?

Georgetown Law Associate Dean Deborah Epstein and Boston College Professor Lisa A. Goodman examine these issues and others in their new book, "Listening to Battered Women: A Survivor-Centered Approach to Advocacy, Mental Health, and Justice" (American Psychological Association, 2008).

Epstein and Goodman critique the services made available to battered women in three areas: the domestic violence advocacy community, the mental health profession and the justice system. While they acknowledge that the options available to battered women have expanded dramatically since the 1970s, they argue that these reforms are still failing to meet the needs of those who seek help.

The authors contend that a renewed focus on the principles of the early feminist movement - listening to individual women’s voices, promoting supportive communities and facilitating economic empowerment - could result in substantial future progress. They write, "It is time to move beyond the one-size-fits all responses that fail to account for a battered woman’s individual situation."

Epstein and Goodman claim that within the battered women’s movement, "the most pressing problems stem from a failure to provide sufficiently survivor-centered services. Resources currently available to victims tend to be far too inflexible and uniform." They conclude by offering a series of recommendations for improvements in the advocacy, mental health and justice systems.

"This is a must-read book for anyone concerned with ending intimate violence against women," noted Cris M. Sullivan, Professor of Community Psychology at Michigan State University, Lansing. "Goodman and Epstein provide a thorough and critical analysis of system responses to this problem followed by concrete recommendations for improvement. Throughout, survivors’ voices and experiences are central. I will recommend this book widely."

"This is an important book that refocuses contemporary mental health and legal advocacy for victims of domestic violence on the roots and principles of the early battered women’s movement," said Elizabeth M. Schneider, Rose L. Hoffer Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School and author of "Battered Women and Feminist Lawmaking." "The authors thoughtfully critique 'one-size-fits all' responses to domestic violence. It is a book that will be useful to domestic violence advocates in a wide variety of fields."

Epstein joined the Georgetown Law faculty as a visiting professor in 1993, and now serves as director of the Domestic Violence Clinic and associate dean of the Clinical Education and Public Interest and Community Service programs. Before coming to Georgetown, she practiced at the civil rights firm of Bernabei & Katz, representing plaintiffs in sex discrimination suits, and clerked for Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Marvin Katz. From 1994 to 1996, she co-chaired efforts to create a new domestic violence unit within the D.C. Superior Court.

Until 2001, Epstein co-directed the D.C. Superior Court’s Domestic Violence Intake Center and directed the Emergency Domestic Relations Project, a public interest organization providing legal and educational services to indigent victims of intimate abuse. She is a member of the D.C. Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board and the D.C. Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, and has served on the board of directors of the D.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Mayor’s Commission on Violence Against Women. She is the author of several publications on domestic violence and sexual harassment law.

About Georgetown University Law Center 

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest full-time faculty in the nation and is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, Georgetown Law has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body representing more than 60 countries.