I am glad this book was written, since if nothing else it is sparking some controversy which may help bring about better research and treatment for domestic violence families. As an ER social worker and a social worker for the family courts, I have seen a lot of domestic violence cases, but I have by no means seen them all, and there is quite a range in their presentation. I read this book with hopes that it would give me a better handle on what other social workers are experiencing with domestic violence cases. I also hoped that Mills' book would offer a sense of direction for social work as it attempts to work with criminal justice in rehabilitating batterers and victims of battery.

The book has a fairly extensive review of the research on domestic violence woven throughout. Much of the research cited points out that women are aggressive, that women are frequently batterers who fight back in the actual fisticuffs of DV, and that mandatory arrest laws are ineffective. In fact, some of the research indicates that mandatory arrests may increase the likelihood that an African-American batterer will be arrested for another act of domestic violence, while there are substantially fewer repeat arrests of Caucasian men.

Considering how underfunded and undervalued I have found work with domestic violence to be, I tended to feel somewhat jaded about the realistic possibility of some of Mills' ideas, such as her idea of an Intimate Abuse Assessment Team which would determine the lethality of a domestic violence couple. I don't know about this — think of the liability nightmares. But Mills is essentially making a strong argument for more intervention in domestic violence families — for people (family, friends, and professionals) to look at the abuse rather than away from it — and on this point she has my wholehearted agreement.

Linda Mills ends the book by talking about her own experience as a partner in an intimate abuse relationship. This was, of course, the juiciest part of the book, and I highly recommend it as a lesson for social workers in someone willing to take a good, hard look at the woundedness of themselves as a healer. For this, Linda Mills deserves praise. There are few among us who are courageous enough to make this level of self-disclosure. Linda Mills accepts responsibility for her own faults, and by this gesture, she serves as a role model for social workers (both healers and afflicted). Let's hope she keeps working to help domestic violence social work sort itself out. --Kiersten Marek, LICSW

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